Sep 8, 2026 · 5 min read
The Good Samaritan: A Family Devotion About Who Counts as a Neighbour
**A lawyer asks Jesus who counts as a neighbour, hoping for a boundary. He gets a story instead.**
The detail that landed hard
Samaritans and Jews had generations of bad blood. Jesus could have made the hero anybody; he made him the person his audience least wanted to admire. Tell your children that part — otherwise it reads as a story about being nice.
Two people walked past
The priest and the Levite were respectable men with good reasons. Most unkindness in a normal week is like that: not cruelty, just being busy on the other side of the road.
He paid and came back
The Samaritan bandages the man, pays the innkeeper and promises to return. Help in this story costs money and takes a second trip.
Tonight's five minutes
**Read:** Luke 10:25-37, out loud, twice. **Ask:** Who did you walk past today — at school, at work, on this street? **Pray:** God, give us eyes for the person on the side of the road tomorrow, and the time to stop. Amen.
If you'd rather not choose the passage yourself, tonight's family devotion is already written for this evening — one passage, one table question and a 30-second prayer, refreshed every day. You can also have it emailed to you each evening so it arrives before dinner.