Daily Bible Reading 25th August 2026 // Luke 10:25-37
25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbour to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
The second problem of interpretation concerns the allegorising of the parable, and making it a picture of the gospel of grace. If we look into almost any of the early Fathers' works, we shall see that they take it entirely as an allegory. According to them as Ryle points out, 'the traveller represents human nature - the falling among thieves, Adam's fall - the lying naked, wounded, half-dead, the condition of mankind - and the failure of the priest and Levite to help, the inability of ceremonies and forms to raise man from his low estate. The Good Samaritan is Jesus Christ. The oil and wine are the blood of Christ and the Holy Spirit. The inn is the Church. The host is the ministry. The two pence are the two sacraments. The promised coming again to repay what is spent more, the Lord's second advent.' What are we to say to such interpretation? First of all, this: the parable was undoubtedly spoken by Jesus in the first instance in answer to the question asked by the lawyer, 'Who is my neighbour?' And, clearly, no interpretation that fails to give due weight to this fact can be regarded as adequate. We may say this without prejudice to any possible allegorical interpretation or application that can be afterwards made. And we owe it to Jesus' plain words to take it in the first instance like this. Indeed, it is too like other parts of His teaching on this plain, moral emphasis for us to doubt it (cf Luke 16:19ff; Matthew 25:31ff) and nothing must be allowed to blunt this tremendous challenge, in the interests of allegorical or any other kind of interpretation. But, having said this, it is open to us to go on to say something else, and this will be the subject of tomorrow's Note.