What Does It Take to Love? – Part 6: Trusting and Loyal

David W Palmer

In Luke 10, a lawyer asked Jesus what he needed to “do” to receive eternal life. The Lord invited him to answer his own question by explaining the essence of the Old Testament. He came up with, “love God and love neighbours.” Jesus agreed that this was right, and he said that the lawyer should do this to receive eternal life. But, to avoid the full challenge of this, the legal expert asked what the word “neighbour” meant in this context. Jesus simply gave the exacting parable of the good Samaritan as the answer. 

So we have been looking closely at it to find what it means for us in applying love to our neighbour. So far, we have discovered 8 very challenging points. To love the way God expects, the good Samaritan had to be: compassionate, willing to become involved, fit, healthy, and strong, first aid competent, resourced, generous, of good reputation financially, and organized. Today, we discover …

1. Trusting

God’s word says that love expects the best of others and shows loyalty to them:

(1 Corinthians 13:7 TLB) “If you love someone, you will be loyal to him no matter what the cost. You will always believe in him, always expect the best of him, and always stand your ground in defending him.”

This clearly shows that the Samaritan neighbour loved the innkeeper as well as the patient. He expected that the innkeeper would use the advanced money to do what he asked—actually look after the injured man well, and fairly total the bill for him. In other words, the man operating in God’s love trusted the inn keeper and expected the best of him:

(Luke 10:35 NLT) “The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’”

1. Loyal

“The next time I’m here.” The Good Samaritan promised to pay the extra when he returned to the inn. This also shows that he must have been a reasonably regular customer; he said, “When I return.” Hence, he exhibited loyalty in his business affairs; he valued long term trusting relationship above short-term profits or advantage—thus showing his reliability, his loyalty to the innkeeper, and his ability to develop trusting relationships that last.

I’m starting to see the picture of a very well organized, generous, faithful, and skilled man. This good Samaritan is someone I find to be very challenging. He is the eternal example that our Lord Jesus chose for showing us how he wants us to love. This will require acceptance of his challenge, adoption of his vision—dropping all other selfish visions—and willingness to get involved, loving the unlovely. To achieve this, our wonderful Lord expects us to prepare to be:

1. Compassionate
2. Willing to become involved
3. Fit, healthy, and strong
4. First aid competent
5. Resourced
6. Generous
7. Good reputation financially
8. Organized
9. Trusting
10. Loyal

In other words, to prepare ourselves to fulfill the great commandments: love God with everything, love neighbour as self. The Good Samaritan in Jesus’s story shows us exactly what Jesus means by this. Are we willing to take this challenge as our own?

As we finish this mini-series on what it takes to love, Jesus leaves us with:

• Some great vision for our personal development;
• Some very clear-cut commandments (love God, love neighbour, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, etc.); and
• Some wonderful promises where love is concerned. For example:

(Romans 5:5 GWT) “We’re not ashamed to have this confidence, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”

Can I encourage you to make growing in love a personal growth goal; grow in love for God, and others. Ask yourself if you are in the position—resourced, trained, well managed, with good reputation, and compassionate enough—to “do” what love requires like the Good Samaritan did. Remember, to enable you to succeed in this, God has ensured that you have: his gu