The Good Samaritan Teaches Us About Sincerity

The parable of the Good Samaritan has transcended spiritual literature as to become a well-known colloquial phrase meaning someone who helps a stranger. In the story, a man who is presumed to be a Jew is beaten, robbed and left on the side of the road. A priest and a Levite both pass him by but when the Samaritan comes upon the man in the road, he stops to help him. The Samaritan helped the man get to a place where he could receive the help he needed and provided money to pay for his care. He also promised to return later. Now in those days, Samaritans and Jews did not like each other which make the story all the more powerful. The one who stopped to helped fully embraced the job of helping the victim.
In this story, Jesus is telling us that it isn’t enough to profess to be a good person, we actually have to go out and live like that – even when it isn’t easy. The story was told to answer the question, “Who is my neighbor?” The answer then is everyone is my neighbor. If we are to live a life sincerely aligned with the gospel teachings we must be willing to help even those that we don’t like.