26 June 2026 | The Neighbour Who Stopped
“And who is my neighbour?” — Luke 10:29
KJV: “But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?”
NASB95: “But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’”
ESV: “But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’”
The lawyer wanted a boundary line — a tidy list of who he was obliged to love. Jesus gave him a Samaritan instead. The despised one stopped. The respectable ones crossed the road.
I think of this often at TCE. Society crosses to the other side of our boys — the ones with records, with relapses, with reputations. We have chosen to stop. We give them work, a wage, a place at the table. Sometimes we must discipline; that, too, is love. But above all, we no longer ask who qualifies. We simply call them family. The man on the road was not Jesus’ neighbour by blood, but by mercy. So are ours.
Father, make me one who stops. Strip from me the instinct to justify my distance, and teach me to call the rejected by their truest name — family. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” — 2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV)
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