When a certain lawyer asked Christ Jesus what he should do to inherit eternal life, the Master replied by questioning, "What is written in the law? how readest thou?" (Luke 10:26.) The lawyer was able to state the law correctly, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself." But when he asked Jesus who his neighbor was, the Master replied by using the parable of the good Samaritan. It is only in the doing of what the law requires that we prove our understanding of the law—that we show that we read it correctly.
Jesus' description of the merciful Samaritan in contrast to the unmerciful priest and Levite must have startled his listeners. Jesus well knew the attitude of the Jews toward the Samaritans, but he also knew that this attitude must be changed. He knew that God must be recognized as the only Father of man, the universal Father, who unifies all whom He has made and holds them together in eternal bonds of brotherhood and love. Jesus knew that humility and love must replace pride and superiority, human codes and creeds.
A priest and a Levite would be well acquainted with the law and no doubt would pride themselves on the strict observance of its letter. But tradition and hypocrisy often blinded them to the full and practical application of the law. They would look on the wounded man from the narrow viewpoint of ecclesiastical superiority, which would divide God's children into categories of the deserving and the undeserving, the worthy and the unworthy, and would restrict infinite Love to mortal measurements of one kind or another. They loved, not with all their heart, but to make a vain show of observing the strict letter of the law, ignoring its spirit.
