What if self control isn’t repression or denial, but embracing the freedom to choose and to thrive?

We are not meant for isolation - we are meant for love. We are meant to live in a deep web of sustaining relationships, in communities of care and concern.

Speaking to an audience of religious people, comfortably confident in their moral uprightness, Jesus means for the story of the Good Samaritan to shock, even offend them. We modern listeners tend to miss its boldness.