The Cost of Eternal Life: Loving God and Neighbor

In this sermon, Reagan explores the concept of eternal life as presented in Luke 10:25-37. He emphasizes the importance of loving God with all one's heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving one's neighbor as oneself. Reagan explains that this dual commandment is foundational to inheriting eternal life and discusses the cost associated with loving one's neighbor, even when it is challenging. He references the Parable of the Good Samaritan to illustrate who our neighbor is and how we should show love, drawing connections to other biblical texts such as 1 John and Leviticus. Alongside this, Reagan also promotes an upcoming Bible class titled 'Designed to be Different,' which he will be teaching on Sunday mornings starting in the new quarter.

00:00 Introduction and Opening Prayer
00:30 Announcement: Upcoming Bible Class
01:42 Reading from Luke Chapter 10
02:21 The Two Greatest Commandments
04:07 Counting the Cost of Loving Your Neighbor
04:51 Who is My Neighbor?
08:48 The Parable of the Good Samaritan
10:33 Lessons from the Parable
17:21 Old Testament Teachings on Loving Your Neighbor
21:58 Practical Applications of Loving Your Neighbor
25:56 Conclusion: The Cost of Eternal Life
30:22 Final Invitation and Call to Action

Transcript

Good afternoon. Would you take out your Bible please and turn to Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10. We'll begin reading in verse 25 this afternoon, just as we did this morning. Luke chapter 10, beginning in verse 25 as we continue our thoughts from this morning. But don't worry if you weren't able to be with us this morning.

The lesson tonight stands on its own as well. So you won't be too lost in what it is that we're gonna be talking about there in Luke chapter 10 in verse 25. Now, before we do that, I want to just give a little quick plug for the Bible class that I'm going to be teaching on Sunday morning in the back, starting not next week, but the week after.

As we begin a new quarter I'm gonna be teaching some material that I taught seven years ago that several people have requested. Again, it's always a good sign when people who are actually in the class. Want the class again. So it's called designed to be Different. It takes its primary text from one Corinthians chapter 12 that in the body we all have different functions that we are given different gifts and different personalities.

And that's not just okay, that's the way God designed it. And so there's a signup list on the little stand there in the foyer. We've got 50 on there that's about how many can fit in that back class and still have some comfort. So if you would please sign up for that class. If you, if you forget to sign up, you can still come, but for purposes of what we're trying to do in having material ready, it would be helpful if you could sign up for that class.

So there's a sign up list there in the foyer that's Sunday mornings starting next quarter. I hope you can come and be with us, and then Preston will have a chance to, you know, get you to come to his class too. But I'm gonna take the chance while I can. All right, so let's look here in our text in Luke chapter 10, starting in verse 25.

As we talked about. This morning and behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him saying, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said to him, what is written in the law? What is your reading of it? So he answered and said, you shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.

And he, Jesus said to him, the lawyer. You have answered rightly, do this and you will live. Those two things that the lawyer talks about. Loving God and loving our neighbor are the foundation for everything else, the foundation, for everything else in the law and the prophets, as Jesus says in the gospel of Matthew on these two things, on these two laws, hang all the law and the prophets.

They are the basis and the motivation for everything that they did. And I would take it forward if we want to have eternal life. These are the two things that we must have as well, the basis for everything else that we do. But we have to count the cost to see if we're really willing to do these two things.

Now we look at those two things. The first of those seems pretty obvious. I mean, this is no surprise. Loving God is the basis of everything else that we do, and it was the basis for everything that the Jews did. I mean, this was the very first scripture that if you were a little Jewish boy or girl, this is the first scripture that you would have memorized.

It would've been written all around the house. You would've been taught this by your parents. You'd be wearing it around your wrist and his frontlets before your eyes. You would know this passage that talks about loving God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. But the second commandment to love your neighbor as yourself, while not obscure, was certainly less centrally a part of Jewish life and more controversial in its application because sinful people complicate the equation.

Loving God in theory should be easy because God is perfectly lovable. Loving people who are not, is often a different kind of equation and, and carries a different kind of cost for us. And so I wanna consider for a few moments this afternoon, count the cost of loving neighbor. What is the cost to us? If we wanna inherit eternal life, we have to love our neighbor as ourself.

So what is the cost to us in order to receive eternal life? Can we count that cost and say, I'm willing to give it. What I receive is this eternal relationship with God. We learn what it means to love neighbor by really answering two questions. Who is my neighbor? Who am I talking about when I say I need to love my neighbor as myself?

And then secondly, how do I love them? Who is my neighbor and how do I love them? Those are our two points tonight. And I want us to see if we can answer those in clear and practical ways. Who is my neighbor, of course makes sense to us because that's. What the lawyer asks if you keep reading there.

Luke chapter 10 in verse 29, but he wanting to justify himself said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor? I think implied in that question that he asks is, how can I even know who my neighbor is? Who is I? I have no idea what you're talking about. Yeah. The law says love your neighbor as yourself, but, but who is that?

To justify, ah, there I go again. My goodness.

To justify the asking of the question to which he already knew the answer, what must I do to inherit eternal life? He had to ask this second question. Well, who is my neighbor? Can you, can you define what that really is for me? I think a lot of times that's what we do. We want to justify ourselves and so we, we throw out some doubt, right?

It reminds, reminds me a little bit with Cain and Abel when God ask him where his brother is. Cain says am I my brother's keeper? Well, what's the answer to that question? Yes, you are your brother's keeper. You should know this. I think it's somewhat similar with this question, who is my neighbor?

Am I my neighbor's keeper? Am I really supposed to love all of these people who are around me? Clearly the first commandment is easier for us to accept than the second. You know what the lawyer doesn't ask, and how do I love God? He knew he couldn't argue that first one. He knew that first one was clearly defined, and he knew that it required everything of him.

But neighbor is more ambiguous. There's more room for misunderstanding, and it is the second commandment, not the first, but I would suggest that the Bible teaches. We cannot fulfill the first commandment to love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength if we don't fulfill the second commandment to love your neighbor as yourself.

And this is the cost that we must all pay for eternal life. Mark, in your spot there in Luke chapter 10, I promise, we're gonna come right back and finally look at this parable that Jesus tells and answer. But I want you to turn for just a moment to First John, can we establish this fact that we have to fulfill the second commandment in order to.

Truly fulfill the first commandment. One. John chapter four, beginning in verse seven, John says, beloved loved ones let us love one another. For love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God. For God is love. If you wanna love. If you don't know what love is, you're gonna have to love other people.

God is love. You say, well, maybe he's saying, you know, we just need to love God. That's what he's talking about there. No, he makes very clear. If you drop down to verses 20 and 21, if someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen. How can he love God whom he has not seen?

And this commandment we have from him that he who loves God, must love his brother. Also, you say you love God, whom you can't see. You can't even love your brother who's right there in front of you. And again, it's not the, the concept of who is more lovable. God is obviously much more lovable than than people.

But the idea is your brother's right there. You can show your love, as Harold has said a dozen times since I've been here to love is to give, right? If you wanna, if you truly wanna love somebody, you're gonna have to show it. You're gonna have to give something. And my brothers and sisters are right there in front of me if I can't show love to them.

That shows that I truly don't have love for God in my heart. So with that in mind, let's go back then to Luke chapter 10 and let's read the rest of the story. Luke chapter 10. And how Jesus answers this man who asked the question, who is my neighbor? Very familiar parable to most of us. The Parable of the Good Samaritan, we call it.

Start there in verse 30. Then Jesus answered and said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed leaving him half dead. Which is better than all dead. Now by chance a certain priest came down the road when he saw him.

He passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite when he arrived at the place, came and looked and passed by on the other side. A lot we could say there, but let's keep moving. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed came where he was and when he saw him, he had compassion. So we went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, and set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn and took care of him.

On the next day when he departed, he took out two deary eye that's a common day's wage, and gave them to the innkeeper. And he said to him, take care of him. And whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you. So Jesus asks, which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?

And he said he who showed mercy on him. Then Jesus said to him. Go and do likewise. He's already said, do this and you will live to fulfill these two commands. Now he explains it and he says, you go and you do likewise. Now, I've made so many applications through the years from this parable. It is a, it is a powerful parable for us, but let's not miss the main point.

The main question Jesus is answering is what the man asks. Who is my neighbor? Well, let me ask another question. Who are we, or more specifically, who is the lawyer in this parable? I think it's a pretty good practice for us to try and put ourselves into the biblical text, especially when we have parables like this.

Where do we fit? Who are we? This lawyer who comes to him. He's not a priest or a Levite, but he is a Jew, right? So he is not the Samaritan either. So who is he? He's not the innkeeper. He is the Jew who is half dead in the ditch. And what Jesus is getting him to do is say, imagine you are the one who's in the ditch dying, and someone comes along.

What does a neighbor look like? The neighbor is the one who shows compassion, even if that one is not from the background that you would like. Even if that one is a Samaritan, even if that one is not from the right people, who is my neighbor? Anyone. I would want to be a neighbor to me and my moment of need, I should be neighbor to them in their moment of need.

I've had lots of different kinds of literal neighbors. Who, who in here has lived in five or more places? We got any five or more places. All right, so most of you have had lots of different neighbors through the years. Some good, some bad in a literal sense, I guess really my first true neighbor as being out on my own.

I had an apartment when I lived in Florida with three other guys, and, and we had this neighbor next door. She was a widow lady. She was a Christian. And she was a little apprehensive about four college boys moving in next door to her. You know, we shared a wall and all that sort of thing, but ended up that this lady cooked for us on a number of occasions.

She gave us tickets to Bush Gardens because she worked there part-time. It was really hard to love her, right? It's really hard to love a neighbor like that. No, it was easy. This is my neighbor, but she's so good to us. It's easy to love her. When Stephanie and I first got married, we lived in a duplex and our neighbors were fine.

But one of the, the husband of this husband and wife that lived next door to us, he was a big workout guy. He worked out in the garage, had a, his gym in there, and he played Eye of the Tiger on repeat. Whenever he went to work out, I mean, he would play the whole song through. Another song would start and then it would stop and we could hear through the wall.

He's a nice guy. Hard to love, hard to love sometimes as a neighbor, right? As I go through the years, I think about, well, later on, I had neighbors like Joe and Sandy Penn making us nachos every Sunday night. And we've had some stinkers along the way. I had a neighbor who stood in the driveway at the end of his driveway just like this.

Some of you maybe remember this, stood in the driveway just like this so people couldn't turn around in his driveway in order to leave after some big event that we had. I, I had another neighbor who, who cussed some teenage kids, or his wife cussed some teenage kids. And then when I went and confronted him about it, he got all up in my chest like he was gonna fight me or something.

Then I've also had neighbors who, who watched after our property, watched after our cat cleaned up toilet paper after our house, got tee peed when we were on vacation. So we've all had different kinds of neighbors through the years. Right? Who do we have to love from? All of those neighbors? All of them.

All of them. All of them are neighbors, not just in the literal sense, but in the sense in which Jesus is talking about here and the sense in which the lawyer quotes from Leviticus. Jesus references this passage quoted by the lawyer in Matthew chapter five. If you wanna turn over there in Matthew chapter five.

You know, many of the Jews had their own interpretation of what it meant to love your neighbor, and this was the pro prevailing thought at the time in Matthew chapter five and verse 43. This is what Jesus says. Matthew chapter five and verse 43. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

Now, in your Bible, maybe like mine, you shall love your neighbor. Is italicized showing that's a quote from the Old Testament and hate your enemy isn't because the New Testament doesn't say anything like that, but many of the Jews, that's what they understood and what they practiced. Now enemy here meant anybody who was not a Jew.

If you weren't a Jew, they could treat you however they wanted to because you weren't neighbor to them. That was their understanding. But Jesus says, but I say to you, love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.

He makes his son rise on the evil and on the good and sins reign. On the just and on the unjust God's love is shown by the things that he does for all people. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you do? Not even the tax collectors do the same. Now file that tax collector away. We'll come back to that at the end of the lesson.

And if you greet those and if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do. So therefore, you shall be perfect. Just as your father in heaven is perfect. If you have the same sort of attitude of loving your enemies, loving those. Who are your neighbor in the broadest sense possible?

Who is my neighbor? Again, another way of putting it is everyone, but that's not just what Jesus taught. The Old Testament didn't say that you could hate your enemy either, and my question is, Jesus gives us this beautiful parable that so clearly catches the lawyer in his own trap. But could he, the lawyer, have known his neighbor was without this parable?

Gimme a thumbs up or a thumbs down, just based on the old law. Could he have known who his neighbor was? Yes, absolutely. He could have. I want you to turn to Leviticus chapter 19, if you would. Leviticus chapter 19. Turn back there for just a moment again. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength comes from Deuteronomy six, one of the best known chapters in the entire Bible.

Certainly for the Jews, it was maybe the best known chapter in the Old Testament, but Levi Leviticus chapter 18 is a little bit more obscure that put 18. Leviticus 19. Good. Leviticus Chapter 19 is a little more obscure. Leviticus chapter 19 verses one through eight, talks about the holiness of the Lord and how our reverence and respect and loyalty and love should be first and only to him.

That sounds a lot like what? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. But then in verse nine, down through about 18 or so, it talks about loving your neighbor. But every couple of verses we have this reminder that these aren't two separate things. Love God and love your neighbor.

These two things go together because the phrase is repeated. I am the Lord. I am Yahweh, your God. In verse 10, verse 12, verse 14, verse 16, in verse 18, you love your neighbor because you love God. The basis our of loving, our neighbor is our love and fear of the Lord. Each of these sections define for them, at least in part, who their neighbor was and how they were supposed to love that neighbor.

Read just the first couple of verses there. Leviticus Chapter 19, verses nine and 10, 19 9 and 10. When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard.

You shall leave them for the poor and the stranger. I am the Lord your God. Now we have a book in the Bible, the Book of Ruth, that deals with this particular law, law in great detail. Right? But notice who does he talk about when he's talking about your neighbor? He specifies two people there, the poor and the stranger.

The stranger would've been non-Jews who were living in the land of Israel, like Ruth, who was a Moabite woman. Whether they have converted to Judaism or not, they are strangers in the land, and you need to show your love for them by leaving the corners of your field and some of the gleaning that falls and all of those sorts of things.

And God specifically said in Deuteronomy chapter 10 in verse 19, therefore, love the stranger, the non-Jew for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. This whole idea of well, love your neighbor and hates your enemy, has no basis in the old law. Even this idea of hating your enemy is contradicted. If you turn back to Leviticus chapter 23, or you can just listen closely and I'll read it to you, Leviticus 23 verses four and five.

If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again. If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, and you would refrain from helping it, you shall surely help him with it. Show your love and compassion even toward the people that are specifically called your enemies in Leviticus 23 verses four in five.

So to sum up my neighbor and your neighbor is anyone whom I would want to be my neighbor. My moment of need, if I would want them to help me, I need to have the attitude of loving and helping them and anyone who needs to be loved, who needs that service from us as we serve them, as God would, that we might be perfect just as our father in heaven is perfect.

So who is that? That's everyone. All other people in this sense are our neighbor, and this is the cost of eternal life. Like, God, we have to love everyone. And so my question to Jesus at that point would be, and how do I love them? Who is my neighbor? Okay, there's everybody. Well, how am I supposed to show my love toward that neighbor?

It's interesting. I think, again, this is a question that could be answered even from the Old Testament without everything that Jesus says in his parable, which is really powerful about showing love. If you're still there in Leviticus chapter 19, notice all of the ways that we're told to love our neighbor.

We read verses nine and 10. Your generosity toward your neighbor, that you show generosity, that you give in times of need toward the poor and toward the stranger. Notice verses 11 and 12. You need to be honest with your neighbor and you shall not steal nor deal falsely nor lie to one another. You shall not swear by my name falsely nor shall you profane the name of your God.

I am the Lord. In verses 13 and 14, you, you need to be kind with your neighbor. You need to treat your neighbor with kindness. You shall not cheat your neighbor nor rob him. The wages of him who is hired shall not remain with you all night until morning. That's just mean. Pay the guy what you owe him. You shall not curse the death, nor put a stumbling block before the bond.

Nevermind. That's just mean, right? These people who are less fortunate, you're gonna be a literal stumbling block for them. You're gonna look down on people who don't have the same advantages that you do. But you shall fear your God. I am the Lord. Verse 14. This is all petty, vindictive behavior, right? Even if somebody is my enemy, I don't withhold their wages to the next day just because I can.

Even if somebody is my enemy, I don't kick them when they're down because that's not what love does. Verses 15 and 16, you need to be fair with your neighbor. You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. Now that's interesting, somewhat different even perhaps than in our society.

Don't show this kind of partiality in righteousness. You shall judge your neighbor. You shall not go about as a tail bearer among your people, nor shall you take a stand against the life of your neighbor. I am the Lord. Don't show favoritism. Love all people fully and equally. And then verses 17 and 18, you need to be forgiving with your neighbor.

You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor and not bear sin because of him. You shall not vengeance nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. Keep my statutes.

Verse 18, that last part. It's just a summation statement of all of these things. Loving your neighbor is more than this, but it, it is not less than this. And Jesus said to this man who said, well, you gotta love God and you gotta love your neighbor. He said, go do this and you will live. And then he gives this parable and he says, go and do likewise when it gets right down to it, I kind of want a head shake this way or that way.

For the most part, do we know what loving our neighbor looks like? Yeah, I think we do. And the Bible doesn't leave us groping in the dark. Over and over and over. We are given specific, applicable illustrations of what this kind of love of our neighbor looks like. And good hearts welcome this kind of specific guidance rather than resisting or resenting it.

Wanting to throw up our hands and say, well, we just don't know the right way to help other people. We just don't know the right way to love our neighbor. No, no, no. If we care enough, we can find the right way, the way of God. And then it becomes a matter of just doing it or not, counting the cost. Am I willing to love my neighbor, including my enemy, with my generosity, with my honesty, with my kindness, with my fairness, with my forgiveness.

So much more as we imitate our God and Father as we imitate Jesus, his Son. Again. Here's my question. Could a first century Jew have known what God meant by love your neighbor as yourself? Absolutely. And so can we, as we're given even deeper insight into that concept as Jesus has taught us, but loving our neighbor.

Loving our brothers and sisters, loving our enemies. It's hard in motivation and application. It's harder than loving God, but thankfully God gives us guidance on what that looks like and how to do it. And if we love God, well, we should love our neighbor also because that is the cost of eternal life. Let me give you one more passage to consider.

This is what we talked about primarily this morning. Turn back to Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14.

Let's start reading there in verse 33, but I want you to see what comes. Immediately following in Luke chapter 14, we read verses 25 through 33. This idea of counting the cost, making sure that we are loving God more than ourself, more than others, more than things that we might have in this life. That's the cost of eternal life, and we need to count that cost.

In verse 33, he says, so likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has, cannot be my disciple. Verse 34, salt is good. But if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? We know from Jesus's Sermon on the Mount that's talking about us, everybody else hates their neighbor if, if that neighbor hates them.

That's the kind of response toward enemies that the world has. But we as Christians make the world a better place by the salt that we provide. If we lose our favor, it is neither fit for the land nor for the dung hill. But men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Now, that's counting the cost in regard to our love for God.

But what's interesting to me is the very next thing that we find in chapter 15 in verse one, then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to him to hear him. What did he say? He who has the ears to hear? Let him hear who's coming to hear all of those people that most Jews would've counted as not their neighbor.

In fact, we see that response, verse two, and the Pharisees and the scribes complain saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them. So he spoke this parable to them saying, what man of you having a hundred sheep if he loses one of them, does not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost?

Until he finds it. And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing and when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors saying to them, rejoice with me for I have found my sheep, which was lost. Say to you. I say to you that likewise, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 just upright quote unquote persons.

Who need no repentance? How do I love my neighbor? I love them like God loves them, which means I desire their salvation. Whether they're a tax collector or a sinner, whatever their background, however they've treated me, my desire should be for their salvation that I love my neighbor as myself. As I would want to be saved.

So I want them to be saved as I would wanna be treated, beaten, and dying in the ditch. So I should treat them. And if I will inherit eternal life, it will only be because I love God with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and I love my neighbor as myself. That is the cost of eternal life. Count the cost.

Are you willing to treat God and others like this? I pray that you are, and I would tell you that we're talking about costs in terms of what it is that we must do in terms of what we must do in response to God, but the reality is there was a greater cost that had to be paid that we did not have the ability to put ourselves, that through Jesus Christ, God showed his love for all mankind, his love for us.

By sending his son to come and die on a cross to pay a cost that we could not pay. And if you're here this afternoon, and you know you need to make your life right with God, he loves you so much, that loving him should be easy in return. And what he offers is so much greater than what he requires. But what he requires of you is everything.

To come in humble submission in your love for him to put Christ on in baptism, that you might rise to walk in newness of life, treating other people the way Jesus treated them and love, and a desire for the salvation of their souls. We have that desire for your soul even tonight. Won't you come while together?

We stand and while we sing.