How many Christian charities do you know of? There are loads! What’s more, many of the earliest charities or charitable organisations were set up by Christians who had a love and concern for those in need. We ought to love and care for others, not simply because being charitable is fashionable these days, but because that is part of our calling in life. Loving others isn’t simply something which is an optional or sideline activity that we ought to do – it is to the core of our reason for living. “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Luke 10:27 (NLT) None of us loves others as we ought to. We find it hard to love those close to us as we ought to, never mind those we don’t know, or our enemies, or those in other parts of the world. But loving others is still our duty. Part of our sin problem before God is that not only have we loved God and put him first in all areas of our lives, but we haven’t loved others as we ought to too. Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-35) to convince the religious man that God’s standard wasn’t a low pass mark, but perfection. When Jesus told the man who questioned him; “Do this and you will live!” (Luke 10:28 NLT), he was at the same time telling him two things: This is how you ought to live all the time with respect to loving others. This highlights how much you have failed to live a sinless life before God. While the parable of the Good Samaritan can be argued to be primarily an evangelistic message, highlighting the man’s need for grace and mercy through faith in Jesus Christ, it also highlights God’s high standard for godly living. We fail to understand the impact of this parable, and the entire encounter with this religious man, unless we see both these aspects. Jesus wants us to live lives where we love our neighbour perfectly. But that is only possible (i) once we accept that we haven’t done it as we ought to have, (ii) accept forgiveness for our sins through faith in Jesus Christ, and (iii) rely on his renewing power by the Holy Spirit to be able to live the way we were supposed to in the first place. Praise God for his holiness, his grace and mercy, and his enabling by the Holy Spirit for us to be the kind of people we ought to be, through faith in Jesus Christ.