The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-29) is used by a lot of people who have no idea what it’s really about. The fundamental question asked by the lawyer is how to identify who is and isn’t your “neighbor.” In this context, “neighbor” is a code-word for “covenant brother/sister.” It’s a totally different question from how most people use it in America. To be more precise, the lawyer was asking whom should he treat as a covenant brother/sister, since he can’t always know for sure who claims Jehovah as God, and actually stands in His favor.
So that’s the crux of the issue: Who merits treatment as spiritual family? Jesus clearly did not teach that everyone should be treated as family until proven otherwise. In other words, Jesus did not live in a high trust society, and the Bible does not presume such a thing as normal or correct. Rather, the Law of Moses commanded a guarded tolerance for those who aren’t obviously a threat (see this list of passages).
People outside the covenant can be treated as friends and allies. You should expect them to receive some of your shalom. You will try to include them as much as possible, but there are distinct areas where they are excluded because they exclude themselves. The point is that you should keep an awareness of the issue, and discriminate righteously.
But the fundamental issue is that, if someone acts according to your best understanding of the Covenant — for us, that means Biblical Law — they should be treated as covenant family until you learn otherwise. Clearly that Samaritan treated the victim as family. This wasn’t just a “fellow human” kind of thing, because that’s definitely not in the Bible. That’s why the Law of Moses required you distinguish, that you discriminate. You cannot give God’s family blessings to someone who isn’t family. But you should be kind to strangers who aren’t a threat. And as long as you don’t know either way, look for clues that your heart-mind will recognize as marks of commitment to Christ.
There are a great many people out there who are, at least to some degree, heart-led. Oddly, a great many of them will not be Christians. The heart-led way is one distinction. But a full commitment to the Creator is the highest distinction, and we need to be careful about where we drop that marker for our own use. Stay conscious of the boundaries of dominion God has granted you.
And for sure there is nothing wrong with recognizing partial commitment, partial heart leading, etc. The whole idea is that you learn to discern, and that you learn to handle God’s gifts according to His desires. Don’t throw pearls to swine; don’t give what is holy to dogs — those are parables that the world at large rejects. But they are the command of Christ.
