Luke 15 – THERE has to be a balance not only as between faith and works, but also in the direction of the works which are our generous fruit of faith. We must seek to share our service and our works so that our fellow saints will not be forgotten in a mistaken enthusiasm for service to the “stranger”, or vice versa: “So then, as we have opportunity let us work that which is good toward all men, and especially toward them that are of the household of faith.”

Even when the teaching and the exhortation are clear on the desirability of balance in the direction of our works we can be so filled with the desire to serve the brethren as to ignore the needs of others around us. In such cases the parable of the Good Samaritan should restore our spiritual perspective, for Jesus shows here that if we deliberately walk on the wrong side of the road in the presence of need, we may be deliberately locked out of the right side of the kingdom in the day of Christ.

JOHN MARSHALL, The New Life, pages 127,128.