three attitudes toward people...

luke 10:30-31, there was a man going down from jerusalem to jericho when robbers attacked him, stripped him, beat him up and left him half dead. it so happened that a priest was going down that road. but when he saw the man he walked on by the other side.

JESUS says here that these three men represent your three choices in life. you’re going to go through life with one of three attitudes toward the people around you, particularly the people in pain.

the first attitude, he walked on by the other side. is keep my distance. this guy says, i'll just keep my distance and go on my business on the other side of the road.

the second is what can be called the curious but uninvolved. luke 10.32 (tev) says, in the same way a levite also came there. a levite was not a jeans salesman. he was a temple assistant. he went over, looked at the man and then walked on by on the other side.

this guy’s even worse. he walks over across the street, sees this guy laying there, beaten half dead, naked, bleeding to death, looks at him and then walks back to the other side and keeps on walking.

i was feeling pretty self-righteous about this until i realized i do this all the time on the freeway. so do you. we like to stare at accidents, but we don’t want to stop at them. my guess is that everybody reading this has done this. traffic always slows down with an accident because of the gawkers. we want to stare. what’s happening over there? is it a fender bender? did anybody get hurt? did anybody get killed? but does anybody want to stop? no. we want to stare but not stop. this is the curious but not involved.

have you noticed it’s a lot easier to gossip about people’s problems than it is to help them with it? we love to talk about other people’s problems, but we don’t want to do anything about it. curious but uninvolved. aware but apathetic.

are you curious but uninvolved. i know i am sometimes but that isn’t loving.

the third response is the response of the good samaritan. treat others how i want to be treated. the bible says in verse 33 (tev), a samaritan who was traveling that way came upon the man and when he saw him his heart was filled with pity.

if you want to grow in love – and that’s what we’re talking about, how to built authentic relationships – then you’re going to have to learn the lifestyle of kindness.

just a thought from the front porch…