Finally, we have verse 37: "And he said, The one who showed mercy to him." This time the lawyer answered correctly. He answered that it is the One who showed mercy to him. The One who shows mercy to me is my neighbor. My neighbor is the Samaritan who stopped to bind up my wounds with the oil and the wine, who put me on the beast and brought me to the inn. My friends, the whole question is not to be the neighbor of someone else. Rather, it is the One who showed mercy to you becoming your neighbor.

The Lord Jesus said, "Go, and you do likewise." This word confuses many people. They think that the Lord is telling us to help others. But what this word means is that your neighbor is the good Samaritan. Therefore you should accept Him as your Savior. Since your neighbor is the good Samaritan, you must be the one wounded by the robbers. This shows us that while we were lying there, He came and saved us. Never say that we can do anything ourselves. Never say that we have the way. He is showing us that we have to let Him do everything. We have to let Him pour the oil and the wine on our wounds. We have to let Him bind up our wounds. We have to let Him put us up on the beast and bring us to the inn. We have to let Him do the work of taking care of us. We have to be like the one wounded. We do not have to be like the Samaritan. Man's greatest failure is to think that he should do something. Man always wants to be his own savior. He always wants to save others. But God has not appointed us to be the savior. God says that we are the ones to be saved.

Hence, the Lord's word fully answered the lawyer's question. It does not mean that one should not love God with his whole heart, his whole soul, his whole strength, and his whole mind. The question is whether or not he can do it. We cannot do it either. We have a wounded life. Actually, our real condition is that we are dead. Our body is living, but our spirit is dead. We need salvation. We cannot help God. Neither can we help man. If we think that we can do something, we will not experience the forgiveness of sins. The work of the cross and the work of the Holy Spirit will not come upon us.

Hence, remember that Luke 10:25-37 never tells us that man is saved through loving God. On the contrary, it says that the Samaritan was first moved with compassion before we could love. He loves first, and then we can love. Before He has loved, we cannot love. It is true that if any man does not love the Lord, he is accursed. In Luke 7, the Lord Jesus told Simon that he who has been forgiven the most loves the most, and he who has been forgiven little loves little. Love comes after forgiveness. It is not a matter that he who loves much receives much forgiveness, and he who loves little receives little forgiveness. However much a person is forgiven, that is how much he loves. A Christian loves the Lord because He has saved him. If you cannot even love the Samaritan, then I do not know what I can say of you. There is no such person on earth. There is no one on earth who does not love the Lord at all; everyone has to love Him at least a little. The Lord said that he who has been forgiven little loves little. It does not say that there is no love. Everyone loves Him to a greater or lesser extent. However, the condition of salvation is not our love. If I am saved because I love the Lord, then one can see that this is very unreliable. Within two or three days, I can change so many times. I am one who has been wounded by the robbers. I am lying there. I can do nothing at all. I am at the end of myself. I do not love God with all my heart, and I do not love my neighbor. But now I allow Him to save me. After He has saved me, I can love Him. We love Him because He has first loved us. It is God's love in us that has produced our love for Him. It is utterly impossible for us by ourselves to produce a love for God.