In this first part of our two-part study on the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37)—what I’m calling the Parable of “Who Is My Neighbor?”—we explore how parables function as teaching tools in the first-century Jewish world. 

Too often, we pull this parable out of its surrounding dialogue and treat it as an isolated story, which leads to misunderstanding its original meaning.

In this lesson, we’ll:

-  Unpack how parables worked for Jesus’ audience.

-  See why context matters by examining the four sections around the parable.

-  Discover how the parable directly answers the question, “Who is my neighbor?”

Join me as we reframe one of Jesus’ most famous teachings within its historical and textual setting. 

By returning the parable to its dialogue, we gain a richer and more transformative understanding of Jesus’ challenge to love our neighbor.

Lesson Handout:

Article: All We Need Is Love, Right?

Article: The Broad Way of Love's Action

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Love can be a confusing word. What does it truly mean to “love your neighbor”?

​In Scripture, love is not merely a feeling but a deliberate choice expressed through action. It is strong, discerning, and just—not naïve or permissive. Far from being one-dimensional, biblical love takes many forms, often in ways we might not expect. Below is a brief overview of the broad ways love can be expressed in action: 

1. Compassionate Care:

     • Comforting the hurting, feeding the hungry, visiting the sick (Matt. 25:35–36).

     • Compassion is not pity that leaves someone stuck—it is active care that restores dignity and helps lift them into flourishing.

2. Correction and Discipline:
​
     • A parent disciplines a child, or God disciplines those He loves (Heb. 12:6).

     • Discipline is not cruelty; it is love that values growth over comfort, shaping character and preventing deeper harm.

​3. Forgiveness and Mercy:

     • Forgiveness is a decision to release resentment toward someone who wronged you, which helps prevent bitterness and anger. Forgiveness specifically addresses a wrong done. It says, “I no longer hold this against you.” It deals directly with moral or relational imbalance.

     • Forgiveness and justice are not mutually exclusive – they do not erase consequences. It creates the possibility of a restored relationship without denying responsibility. In practice, you can forgive someone (release the offense) yet still hold healthy boundaries.

     • Mercy is broader. It’s the posture of compassion that moves you to show kindness or leniency toward someone in distress or deserving punishment.

     • Mercy can apply even when there is no direct offense against you. It might mean alleviating suffering, reducing a penalty, or helping someone in weakness, whether or not they “deserve” it.

     • You can show mercy to someone (help them, lessen a penalty) even if you haven’t been personally wronged.

     • Forgiveness deals with past wrongs and removes relational debt. Mercy deals with present need or suffering and moves to relieve it. Love calls for both.

4. Advocacy for Justice:

      • Seeking fairness in society. To love your neighbor is to love the entire community. 

     • Justice must be principled and impartial: “Do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, and do not show favoritism to a poor person in a lawsuit” (Exod. 23:2–3).

     • While love often advocates for those oppressed by those in power, it becomes a perversion of justice to favor one side over the other: “Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly” (Lev. 19:15).

     • Justice protects the whole community by refusing bias in any direction.

5. Sacrificial Service:

       • Giving up time, resources, or even life itself for another (John 15:13).

     • Sacrifice is not enabling others’ irresponsibility, but willingly taking on cost for the sake of another’s good.

6. Hospitality and Inclusion:

   • Welcoming the stranger, making room for outsiders (Lev. 19:34; Heb. 13:2).

   • Hospitality does not mean abandoning discernment—it is opening the door while still protecting the household.

7. Truth-Telling: 

        • Speaking truth, even when it is uncomfortable, because deception harms (Eph. 4:15).

     • Love does not flatter or cover over lies; it speaks honestly with the goal of healing, not wounding.

8. Peacemaking and Repair:

       • Mediating conflict, working to reconcile relationships (Matt. 5:9).

      • Peace is not avoidance of hard issues; it is the courageous work of reconciliation rooted in truth.

     • Repair acknowledges that harm has been done and seeks to address it, not just sweep it under the rug.

    • In Hebrew thought, shalom (peace) isn’t merely the absence of conflict; it’s wholeness, completeness, and well-being.

      • Within Judaism, Tikkun (as in tikkun olam, “repair of the world”) expresses the idea of actively fixing what’s broken, whether in relationships or society.

      • Repair addresses the tangible and relational damage caused by the offense—restoring what was lost, healing what was harmed, or rebuilding trust.

9. Endurance and Patience:

       • Continuing to love when it is costly or inconvenient (1 Cor. 13:4, 7).

     • Patience is not passivity; it is steady strength that refuses to give up on others even when progress is slow.

10. Protecting and Defending:

      • Love shields the vulnerable, setting boundaries against harm (Prov. 31:8–9).

     • Protection is not over-control; it is love strong enough to stand in the gap when others are at risk.

11. Delighting and Celebrating:

     • Rejoicing in another’s well-being and success (Rom. 12:15).

     • Celebration is not shallow sentiment—it is love that affirms the good and lifts others with joy.

12. Bearing Burdens:

       • Sharing in another’s struggles, walking alongside them (Gal. 6:2).

     • Bearing another’s load is not codependency; it is a temporary sharing of weight that helps restore strength and balance.

The Beatles famously sang, “All you need is love.” Yet the Bible reminds us that love alone,
without justice, can lead to painful imbalance. Genesis helps us understand this confusing message. Abraham loved Sarah, but Hagar was treated unjustly. Jacob loved Rachel, yet Leah was left unloved. Jacob loved Joseph above his other sons, and the rest were embittered.

In each case, love without justice led to brokenness. Justice demands equal and fair treatment
regardless of our preferences or affections. Love must be joined with justice if it is to reflect God’s
character. Needless to say, the commands to love and pursue righteousness and justice have been challenging for humanity from the start.

​Each of us has a natural temperament. Some lean toward empathy and mercy, while others lean toward rules and order. When someone who is naturally compassionate encounters the command to love, they may equate “love” only with being soft, kind, or permissive.
 
An imbalance of compassion creates tension when justice demands firmness or consequence. Conversely, someone less naturally compassionate may confuse “justice” with judgment, but neglect mercy. Our personality filters the command.

​Society cannot function solely on compassion. If every crime were met with unqualified forgiveness, the vulnerable would be unprotected, and wrongdoing would multiply.
 
Justice requires impartial standards, consequences, and accountability. Yet when justice is pursued without love, it quickly becomes cold, punitive, and oppressive. The balance is delicate: compassion softens justice; justice prevents compassion from becoming naïveté.

​The difficulty, then, lies in holding together:

• Love (the divine command, absolute and universal),
• Compassion (our personal, emotional impulse to help others), and
• Justice (the communal, societal necessity).

 
People often collapse one into the other:

• Equating love with compassion alone (and ignoring justice).
• Equating love with justice alone (and ignoring compassion).
• Confusing their personal feelings with God’s absolute command.

​Scripture itself wrestles with this tension. God’s vision for humanity is that we build communities where both individuals and society can thrive. For this to happen, justice must be upheld—not only through rules but also through their fair and consistent application tempered with mercy, compassion, and lovingkindness. 

Scripture shows that the task of preserving justice belongs to the community. God appoints judges and even establishes boundaries for them: they must refuse bribes and make decisions fairly. (Deut. 16:19). The biblical command is urgent and repeated: “Justice, justice you shall pursue” (Deut. 16:20). This is impartial justice, extended to all people everywhere. 

God is fully aware of the reality of evil, which is why He calls His people to confront it and to purge it from their midst (Deut. 17:7; 1 Cor. 5:13). Such work cannot be done casually; it requires resilience and integrity throughout the entire community. 

​And this is where the tension lies: we may feel deep compassion for a person who has seriously broken the law, yet we must also love the broader community enough to uphold justice on its behalf. God does not ask us to close our eyes to evil or to respond in naïve permissiveness. Instead, He calls us to cultivate the strength of character needed to face hard realities with both mercy and resolve.

​At the cross, we see God’s justice and compassion converge. The biblical story consistently portrays God as both righteous and merciful, calling His people to embody the same balance: “to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).
 
Through the cross, God’s justice is upheld within the story of His people, yet in Christ it becomes the doorway for His compassion to be revealed to the whole world. As the psalmist says, “Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other” (Psalm 85:10).
 
What appears to be a place of judgment becomes, in God’s hands, a place of reconciliation and healing, where His love overflows beyond Israel to embrace all nations (John 3:16). The cross, therefore, is not simply about punishment or substitution, but about God’s covenant faithfulness breaking open into compassion that transforms the entire human story.

In this concluding lesson of our John 3 introduction series, we trace the remarkable journey of Nicodemus—one of the most overlooked redemption stories in the New Testament.

Most readers know Nicodemus from John 3, where he comes to Jesus at night, symbolizing spiritual darkness. But John doesn’t leave him there. 

We next encounter Nicodemus in John 7, quietly defending Jesus against the other religious leaders—signaling a break from the collective “we” of the Pharisees. 

Finally, in John 19, we see Nicodemus fully transformed, stepping boldly into the light and bringing an outsized amount of myrrh—a burial and resurrection spice—for Jesus’ body.

📖 In this lesson, we explore:

Through Nicodemus’ journey, John shows us that redemption is not instantaneous but a process of courage, separation, and new devotion.

👉 This is the final lesson (Part 4 of 4) in our John 3 introduction series—“Redeeming Nicodemus”.

Primary Lesson Handout CLICK HERE

Article: Breaking Free From Literalism CLICK HERE

In this third lesson of our John 3 introduction, we shift from John’s rhetorical device to the rich symbolism and character development woven throughout his Gospel.
📖 In this lesson we cover:

1. Major Symbolism in John’s Gospel – We explore recurring images such as light and darkness, water and Spirit, birth and new life, and how these themes shape John’s message about Jesus.
   
2. Characters as Symbols – John intentionally crafts his characters so they embody themes and ideas, helping us grasp the deeper truths he is communicating. Each person we meet in John’s Gospel symbolically illuminates aspects of Jesus’ mission and the kingdom of God.
   

By recognizing John’s symbols and his purposeful use of characters, we can move beyond surface-level reading and appreciate the theological depth of his narrative.
👉 This is Part 3 of 4 in our John 3 introduction. Stay tuned for Part 4 as we continue unlocking the layered meaning of John’s Gospel.

See part 2 blog post by clicking HERE

This short lesson continues our introduction to John 3 by moving from the theories of inspiration (how John participates in the communication of God’s Word) to one of John’s most important rhetorical devices.

Throughout his Gospel, John structures conversations where:

     1. Jesus makes a statement

     2. The listener takes it too literally

     3. Jesus then provides a deeper explanation

We’ll walk through several examples of this pattern, helping us see how John guides his audience toward a deeper, spiritual understanding of Jesus’ words.

The lesson concludes with the Fig Tree Ministries article “Breaking Free of Literalism”—showing how John warns his readers not to flatten his Gospel into literalism, but to step into the layered meaning he is presenting.

​👉 Stay tuned for Part 3, as we continue unfolding the rich introduction to John 3.

Lesson 29 Main Handout:

Article: Breaking Free of Literalism

​Before diving into John’s unique rhetorical device—where Jesus makes a statement, the listener misunderstands it literally, and then Jesus explains the deeper meaning—we first need to step back and ask: What do we mean by inspiration?

For many modern Christians, the word “inspiration” often conjures the idea of God dictating word-for-word to the biblical authors. But scholars today do not understand the process that way. 

Instead, inspiration is seen as a dynamic partnership: God communicates an inspired message, while the author freely expresses it through his own personality, style, and cultural tools.

This understanding allows us to appreciate how John shaped his Gospel with artistry and intent, using rhetorical devices and imagery his first-century audience would have recognized. 

By seeing John not just as a passive recorder, but as an inspired communicator, we begin to notice the depth and brilliance behind the Gospel’s structure.

👉 Join us for this journey into John’s Gospel and prepare for Part 2, where we’ll see his rhetorical device in action!

Article: Breaking Free From Literalism