Boyd's Commentary. R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation
them. Rather than just saying “the Samaritan,” he instead referred to him as “the one who showed mercy.” Knowing the challenge comparing himself to a Samaritan presented to the lawyer’s pride, Jesus told him to go and do likewise. The point is simple but profound, a profundity we have been wrestling with ever since.
THE LESSON APPLIED
One of the fundamental features of Black culture that has preserved the African American community throughout the years of enduring racism and discrimination is our shared understanding of struggle. The systems of this country were not made to accommodate the needs of people of color; therefore, if you are a person of color, just surviving one day to the next can be stressful.
Our shared understanding of struggle is what strengthens the bond of our fellowship. Under the weight and pressure of lack, we are naturally brought together by the same unifying desire to meet the needs of the other. This philosophy has undergirded the primary mission of the Black Baptist church. In the early years of all Black congregational gatherings, our distant fathers and mothers assembled for worship with a love for God expressed through meeting the needs of one another. This passage challenges the Black Church to meet needs beyond the membership of the Black Church. This story encourages us beyond the Black community, even into “enemy territory.”
LET’S TALK ABOUT IT
What happens if I choose not to help?
Martin Luther King Jr. in his last speech delivered on April 3, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee raised this parable as a parallel to the struggle for rights by the Black sanitation workers. In his explication, he stated that the priest and Levite asked, “What will happen to me if I stop?” This was predicated on their understanding that the road from Jerusalem to Jericho was quite dangerous. King said they wondered whether the robbers were close or if the bloodied man was faking and a part of the band of thieves. They were afraid. King changed the question the Samaritan asked himself. He said the Samaritan asked, “What will happen to him if I do not stop?” The inversion of the question demonstrates a willingness to picture oneself in the ditch. The answer, if the Samaritan did not stop, was the man in the ditch most likely dies. The world will not stop, but what will become of his wife and children? This is the question we should ask ourselves when we see even an enemy in distress. What will happen to him or her if I do not stop? Most likely further harm may come to those who need our help. We are neighbors in as much as we decide to stop and help those in the ditch. Jesus was clear we should be those who go and do likewise, developing a “dangerous unselfishness.”
HOME DAILY DEVOTIONAL READINGS
OCTOBER 19–25, 2020
| LESSON 8 | OCTOBER 25, 2020 |
| LOVE DIVINE | |
| TOPIC:THE MOST EXCELLENT WAY | BACKGROUND SCRIPTURE:1 CORINTHIANS 12:27–14:1 |
1 CORINTHIANS 13:1–13
| King James Version | New Revised Standard Version |
| THOUGH I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. | IF I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. |
| 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. | 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. |
| 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. | 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. |
| 4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, | 4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant |
| 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; | 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; |
| 6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; | 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. |
| 7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. | 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. |
| 8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. | 8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. |
| 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. | 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; |
| 10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. | 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. |
| 11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. | 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. |
| 12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. | 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. |
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13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these |