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Thought for Today

The Washington D.C. Riots and the Good Samaritan
Thursday, January 14, 2021 by Dr. James W. Walraven

Categories: Apologetics / Contemporary issues / Spiritual warfare / Thought for Today

“Hate” is the new “love,” or at least so it seems in our contemporary culture. Each side vilifies and despises the other. The leftists hate the right-wingers, and the right-wingers hate the leftists. Each seems to wish that those on the other side were dead. As the violence escalates, so does each side’s hatred of the other.

I keep thinking of Jesus’s parable of the Good Samaritan. A Pharisee had just given Jesus the correct answer about the greatest commandments, to love God with all your hear, soul, strength, and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself. But, as the Scriptures record, that since he wanted to justify himself, he asked Jesus to clarify who his neighbor was (Luke 10:29).

Jesus responded by telling him the parable of the Good Samaritan. There was no greater racial hatred at the time than that which existed between the Jews and the Samaritans. Second Kings 17:21–41 describes the origins of those who settled in Samaria after God had removed the northern kingdom, and how they lived. In Jesus’s day, the Jews so hated them that if they had to travel to Galilee, they would go days out of their way, traveling up the east side of the Jordan river just to avoid going through Samaria. As John 4:9 states, “For Jews do not associate with Samaritans” (CSB17).

Yet, in Jesus’s parable, it is a Samaritan who takes pity on, and helps, a Jew that had been robbed and left for dead, something neither a Jewish priest, nor a Levite was willing to do for a fellow Jew. Think about how that translates to our current situation, with all the rioting that is now going on. If you’re a “radical leftist Antifa supporter,” your neighbor is Donald Trump. If you are a “liberal-hating flag waving patriot,” your neighbor is Nancy Pelosi. On an individual level, it would be like Ilhan Omar genuinely caring for, say, Condoleezza Rice (or vice versa).

As Christians, we are commanded to love our neighbor (one can also think culturally of the late Mr. Rogers). Our ultimate allegiance is to God, not to either political party. We first and foremost must follow Christ. The problems we face can only be solved in Christ. Christ is the only answer for human sin—sin that has been front and center now for months.

As those in the world become increasingly hostile to one another, think of the positive witness we could be as Christians, as we exhibit the love of Jesus Christ to those around us, regardless of their political persuasion.

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