Article September 17, 1984 Issue

Are you a good Samaritan?

CHARLES B. LESTER

If someone were to ask us if we are good Samaritans, we would probably answer, "Well, I think so. Or at least I would be one if I had the opportunity. But I never meet up with similar situations." Could an answer like that mean we are passing by "on the other side," like the priest and Levite in Jesus' parable? See Luke 10:25–37. There are limitless opportunities every day, right at hand, to be a good Samaritan, regardless of where we are.

This parable of the Master, Christ Jesus, doesn't just apply if we happen, in person, upon someone who is desperately in need of help. It beautifully amplifies the meaning of neighbor so we see that everyone, whoever and wherever he or she may be, is our neighbor. And in one way or another we all need each other's help. Loving our neighbor as ourselves, as Jesus commanded, is far more than a duty—it is a joyous privilege. If we genuinely put our heart into it, we will naturally be a good Samaritan. The spiritual law requiring us to love our neighbor as ourselves clearly includes being a good Samaritan and living by the Golden Rule.

And the substance of this parable is similar to Jesus' command "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Mark 16:15. But some may wonder how we can preach the gospel—the good news of divine Life, Truth, and Love—and be a good Samaritan to everyone in the world? Following Jesus' command doesn't mean we have to meet personally everyone in need of help. In the Manual of The Mother Church there is an indication of how these duties can be fulfilled. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, tells us: "It shall be the duty of every member of this Church to defend himself daily against aggressive mental suggestion, and not be made to forget nor to neglect his duty to God, to his Leader, and to mankind." Man., Art. VIII, Sect. 6. We can go "into all the world" by daily letting our uplifted thought reach out to embrace mankind. Through spiritually enlightened prayer, we begin to see our neighbors not as sinful, limited, fearful, disease-prone mortals, but as actually the perfect children of God—spiritual ideas created, governed, motivated, and provided for solely by Him, hence eternally good.

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