Brother Paul
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Yah's way or our way IV
Luke 10:33 (KJV) – “But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him”
But when Jesus is asked “Who is our neighbor?” He specifically uses this group whose border ran along their own. In Luke 10:25-37 Jesus tells us of a good SAMARITAN. A man after His own heart. He praises him as an example of how we should treat one another. The priest, the common man, even the Pharisees would do nothing to help this poor man in his distress, But along comes this one from among the scorned and shows himself to be a grade above these others in the eyes of God. Why? Because of his inward compassion and willingness to give of himself to assist this total “other”!
For we are told over and over that when the unrighteous or a gentile without the law does that which is right in the eyes of God and the law, he is as a law unto himself? Does God not count it as righteousness? Yet we have the word. Why are so many disassociating themselves from the heart of God?
Later in Matthew, Jesus says He came as a stranger and there were those who took Him in, and those that would not. Those who did are called “Blessed: and are told to enter the Kiingdom he had prepared, and those that would never he rebuked, and He sent them into eternal fire (Matthew 25:31-46).
Did you know that the word used for “stranger” in the New Testament is the Greek word “Xen-os”? It means alien, foreigner, one who is not part of the COMMON KIND. If we have the Spirit of Christ, do we not have the compassion He had toward them? We don't? If we do not, is this rejection and mistreatment the effect of the Holy Spirit?
Leviticus 19:33 warns us “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.” Therefore, “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling” (1 Peter 4:9). Can we do this? What hinders us from following Jesus example in this regard?
In Christ it matters not what your social status is, or your ethnicity, or how you dress, or whether you are tall or short, male or female, a king or a hand maid, We are all equal at the foot of the cross. Knowing we would all be unworthy if our judge was the 613 Mitzvot (Commands) we come to know that believing Him, as opposed to just believing in Him, is what He desires. Only light conquers darkness, only love conquers hate, and so on.
In Exodus we are instructed to not wrong a sojourner or oppress them. This was especially relative to the Israelites because they were foreigners in a land where they were oppressed for 400 years. That does not mean that because we live in a land of plenty that we should forget these lessons. The Old Testament is our school teacher, giving us examples of what we should and should not be like as individuals. Were all Israelites cognizant of this? Did they all treat these others with grace and respect? No, of course not. But which ones were right with God and counted as the Blessed in His sight?
This is why Hebrews 13:2 tells us “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers (Xen-os: aliens, foreigners), for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” Indeed some have even taken in Christ unawares! After all, some of them are the least of them, His brethren.
Therefore, as Colossians 3:11 tells us that in Christ, “there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.”
So how do we think of the strangers, the xenos, in our land? How do we treat them? How do we judge them? Should we, like Christ, not be good unto them and be hospitable and kindly, and treat them as equals? Think on this and if necessary adjust yourself (transform your self by the renewing of your mind). Shouldn't we yeild to His Spirit, the fruit of which is Love. Should we be unto them as Christ was to us? You know! Sow to the Spirit at every opportunity, and in due season you will reap.
