What does Luke 10:37 mean?

Jesus finishes His conversation with the lawyer. They are discussing how someone can be judged righteous at the resurrection and enter God's kingdom. The lawyer knows that loving God and neighbor is the culmination of the Mosaic law. But he wants to know who his neighbor is—to which people must he show love (Luke 10:25–29)?

Jesus proceeds to tell the parable of the good Samaritan. A man is beaten up and left for dead. A priest and a Levite pass by without stopping. A Samaritan cares for the man, even paying two days' wages to ensure an innkeeper sees to his needs. Jesus asks the lawyer to identify which man was a neighbor to the victim (Luke 10:30–36). Dr. Darrell Bock suggests that by responding with, "the one who showed him mercy" instead of identifying the story's hero as "the Samaritan," the lawyer betrays a cultural prejudice. That may be, but it also affirms that anyone can be a neighbor to anyone else, regardless of religion, ethnicity, nationality, or conflict.

In the story, Jesus shows that "Who is my neighbor?" is the wrong question. He goes back to the lawyer's original question: "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" (Luke 10:25). The answer is: be a neighbor; love like a neighbor. We shouldn't ask, "Who are we supposed to love?" We're supposed to ask, "How do we become a loving person?" The priest and the Levite—like the lawyer—have head-knowledge of the Law, but no love. The Samaritan, an enemy of the Jews, is a loving person and so he loves the victim and through that love, the two become neighbors. The point here is not that good deeds lead to eternal life, but that the faith that secures eternal life expresses itself in godly love.