Christian Medial Fellowship
Printed from: https://www.cmf.org.uk/doctors/devotion/?id=devotion&day=23&month=2
close
CMF on Facebook CMF on Twitter CMF on YouTube RSS Get in Touch with CMF
menu doctors

doctor's life support

23rd February: Being there for Others

But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him ... Luke 10:33-34

In the story of the good Samaritan, which Jesus told, the first two people who came down the road where the traveller had been beaten up were a priest and a Levite. They came down to the place, they saw the man, and they avoided him. The Samaritan came to the place, he saw the man, and he went to him. He came not just to the place, but to the man. he involved himself in the man and his need.

Emil Brunner has described love as `being there for others'. The Samaritan showed love. He was there, really there, for the man in need. That is the pattern. Being really `there'. It is basic to real care, whether medical or otherwise.

Once I wrote something along these lines in an article in a missionary magazine. Some time later, out of the blue, a letter came to me from an Australian nurse working in a missionary situation. She wrote: `I would like you to know that your recent article...was a help to me -- in particular the idea of love being there for others. It came just as I was finding it hard to love someone I was living with, but to "be there for her" was possible. It works!'

This underlines the practical nature of love. It does not depend on feelings, though compassion and understanding go with it. It does not depend on liking. Some people are difficult to lie. Aren't we all difficult to like sometimes? How could God possibly like us all the time? Yet he loves us. The Son of God loved us and gave himself for us. `Beloved', writes the Apostle John (1 Jn 4:11), `if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another'. In a pungent comment on Emil Brunner's description of love as `being there for others'. John V Taylor (in his book The Primal Vision) says: `The failure of so many "professional" Christians has been that they are "not all there"'.

Help us, Lord, to understand the meaning and the
implications in everyday life of `being there for others'.
Help us to be willing in the daily round to be there
for others. Help us to love as you have loved us.

Further reading: Luke 10:25-37.

RRW

Christian Medical Fellowship:
uniting & equipping Christian doctors & nurses
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instgram
Contact Phone020 7234 9660
Contact Address6 Marshalsea Road, London SE1 1HL
© 2024 Christian Medical Fellowship. A company limited by guarantee.
Registered in England no. 6949436. Registered Charity no. 1131658.
Design: S2 Design & Advertising Ltd   
Technical: ctrlcube