Misuse of the Parable of the Good Samaritan

The Purpose of the Rap Report

Welcome to another edition of the Rapt Report. This is a program where we are going to provide short biblical interpretations for biblical applications to things in the culture or things on social media.

A Cultic Group Misusing the Parable of the Good Samaritan

Recently I was at a conference where we had about 4 ,500 pastors that were there to relax and be fed under the teaching of the Word of God, and there was a cultic group that decided that they wanted to pray on those pastors and make those pastors aware of their specific idea of how ministries should be done and the one ministry that all churches should be involved in in their mind.

Now with that they came to the conference with an argument that we want to take a look at. They used an argument from Luke chapter 10 verses 25 and following known as the parable of the Good Samaritan.

They were using that to say that what they were doing was though these pastors were in it, being fed by the good teaching of God's Word, they had good intentions, but the comparison was these pastors were like the scribes and the Levites who saw someone on the side of the road but didn't do anything about it.

And their argument is that what needs to be done is that these pastors need to go and take care of the Samaritan, being specifically address the issue of abortion. They feel that every Christian's responsibility is to be about the business of ending abortion.

Which is a good and noble idea to put a stop to that travesty. But the question is, is this parable properly used? One of the things we know about parables is the fact that whenever interpreting a parable you always want to make sure you are interpreting it with the main purpose of the parable in mind.

Interpreting the Parable in Its Context

In fact in the direct context of this parable you read just a few verses before that Jesus said that not everyone is going to know the things of God. That it was hidden but He was glad that these things were not hidden from the disciples.

And then there comes someone who wants to justify himself. He is a religious leader who is looking to justify himself. That becomes important. Why? Because the main point of the parable is to address the false religious system that the rabbis had set up.

Where they have basically put God on a shelf and set themselves up as leaders and had their legalistic system where they said you must do this to be right with God. Almost sounds like this cultic group that we had.

But the reality is that when you try to use that parable, the only way you can apply that parable to that conference is if you are implying that all the people at that conference or more specifically that conference itself is a false religious system.

Applying the Parable Without Adding to Its Meaning

You see when you first do the interpretation the parable is dealing with a false religious system. That is what that parable is addressing. One thing you never want to do with a parable is try to make it say what it is not saying.

And that is what this group was doing. They were trying to make this parable say more than it was intended to say by trying to make the argument that somehow the religious leaders at this conference were analogous to the religious leaders in the parable.

When the religious leaders in the parable were false religious leaders that were leading people astray. So one thing you have to do is first interpret the passage properly in its context. Once you do that then apply it properly.

In this case it is a misapplication unless they are claiming that all those pastors and that conference was a false religious system. So when you are interpreting a parable remember you first want to interpret it based on the main point that the parable is there to teach and then apply it to what its interpretation is.

Do not try to read more into the parable than should be and do not try to apply it where it shouldn't be. That is today's WRAP Report. This is the Ministry of Striving for Eternity. You can go to strivingforeternity .org to find out more about us and all the materials we have available for your discipleship.