When We Show Kindness We Create Joy – (Proverbs 14:21)

Daily Bible Study
Dear believer, do you remember the story Jesus told us about the Good Samaritan? Jesus was speaking to a Jewish audience, and the Jewish people despised the Samaritan people. Though there was a distant relationship between them the Samaritans were people who lived in what had been the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The Northern Kingdom went into exile when the Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom hundreds of years earlier. The Samaritans were a racially mixed society of Jewish and pagan ancestry. The people who were left behind after the Assyrian deportation intermarried with the surrounding Gentiles who were brought in by the Assyrians. The Jewish people felt the Samaritans were pagan and had no part in God. This was because of their ancestry as well as their history of idolatry. Despite this Jesus in His story, showed that it was the Samaritan man, not the Jewish man who had been a good neighbor to the injured business man.

In His example, the Jewish man had been left for dead on the side of the road and ignored by his fellow countrymen. This story was an answer to the question, "who's my neighbor?" What Jesus explained to His Jewish audience was that our neighbor is anyone and everyone we come into contact with during our daily life. Anyone who needs our help and assistance. Jesus in His example, contrasted two opposite ends of society in order to help the Jewish people understand God looks at the heart of a person, and not the outward appearance or nationality. We are called by God to use our time, talents and resources to help those around us as well as aid in the spread of the Gospel message. This is the Great Commission, which has given to us by Jesus Himself. What Jesus had told His audience is this, we are in fact our brother's keeper, and we are to help anyone who is in need. Moreover, God will hold all believers responsible for what we did with the Gospel message, and what we did with the time, talents and resources God has blessed us with.