THE GOOD SAMARITAN

25Then a teacher of the law stood up. He was trying to test Jesus. He said, “Teacher, what must I do to get life forever?”

26Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?”

27The man answered, “Love the Lord your God. Love him with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.” Also, “You must love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

28Jesus said to him, “Your answer is right. Do this and you will have life forever.”

29But the man wanted to show that the way he was living was right. So he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30To answer this question, Jesus said, “A man was going down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. Some robbers attacked him. They tore off his clothes and beat him. Then they left him lying there, almost dead. 31It happened that a Jewish priest was going down that road. When the priest saw the man, he walked by on the other side of the road. 32Next, a Levite came there. He went over and looked at the man. Then he walked by on the other side of the road. 33Then a Samaritan traveling down the road came to where the hurt man was lying. He saw the man and felt very sorry for him. 34The Samaritan went to him and poured olive oil and wine on his wounds and bandaged them. He put the hurt man on his own donkey and took him to an inn. At the inn, the Samaritan took care of him. 35The next day, the Samaritan brought out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. The Samaritan said, ‘Take care of this man. If you spend more money on him, I will pay it back to you when I come again.’”

36Then Jesus said, “Which one of these three men do you think was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by the robbers?”

37The teacher of the law answered, “The one who helped him.”

Jesus said to him, “Then go and do the same thing he did!”