Topic > Bystander Effect Argument - 1391

We are commanded by God Himself to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Everyone on Earth is everyone else's neighbor, so they command everyone to love even the bitterest of enemies. Consider the parable of the Good Samaritan. A Jew (Henry, 753 years old) was walking along a road and was ambushed by robbers who took all his belongings and beat him to death, leaving him on the side of the road to die. Two men considered among the most righteous in their cities passed by the dying man. However, a Samaritan, who was a sworn enemy of the Jews (Henry, 753), stopped and gave medical treatment to the man using expensive wines and oils on the man's wounds. The Samaritan then loaded him onto his donkey and took him to an inn, and left two days' worth of wages for the innkeeper to take care of the man (“Good”). This Samaritan had no reason to help him, in fact it would have been acceptable if he had simply killed the man, because they were bitter enemies. However, the Samaritan had love in his heart and obeyed the commands of the moral law even though he had no reason to do so and could not afford to. What we can learn from the Good Samaritan is that doing the right thing often corresponds to the moral law, and that intervention falls within the definition of the right thing to do.