25 ¶And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?
27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.
28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.
29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?
30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.
33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,
34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.
36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?
37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.
It dawned on me yesterday when we were discussing this during Sunday School, that as well as kindness to others, Christ was making the point that religious affiliation to any particular sect is of little consequence in terms of eternal life.
This was Christ relating a parable (a story not a real event) to answer the question about gaining Eternal life and He explicitly uses people from differing religious sects.
In short, He is telling us that it matters not what religion we follow. We will not be measured on that. We will be measured on our acts of kindness towards fellow human beings.
I pondered this last night and reached the conclusion, on the basis of this parable, that Christ would not approve of the Church's missionary programme as it is currently operated. 55,000 Church missionaries world wide are concentrating on the point that your religious persuasion is vital for Eternal life and in fact, you need to join the Mormon religion to be exalted.
By comparison the Church has only 8,000 or so missionaries out in the world being good Samaritans.
If the Church followed the guidance Christ gives in the above parable, surely they'd be 63,000 missionaries engaged in acts of humanitarian compassion and none proselytysing?