---
title: Luke 10:25
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/luke-10-25/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/luke-10-25.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Luke 10:25
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Luke 10:25

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> One day an expert in the law stood up to test Him. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "Now look! a man versed in the Law stood up to test him and said: 'Teacher, what do I need to do to inherit everlasting life?'"

## JW Usage

Luke 10:25 sets up the Good Samaritan parable. JW commentary reads the lawyer's question ("what must I do to inherit everlasting life?") as the right kind of question — life is inherited by doing, by obedient service to Jehovah's commands. The parable's emphasis on practical mercy is read as supporting the JW emphasis on the preaching work as the primary expression of love for neighbour, with disaster relief among fellow Witnesses as a secondary expression.

## Protestant Usage

Read the parable in v. 30-37 alongside James 1:27 ("pure worship from the standpoint of our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their tribulation"). Jesus's Samaritan crossed religious and ethnic lines to care for a beaten stranger; the priest and Levite (the religious insiders) passed by. The parable defines neighbour-love as practical mercy to anyone in need, regardless of religious affiliation. The Watchtower's organisational practice — disaster relief primarily for fellow Witnesses, no public hospitals or food banks or shelters serving the wider community — fits the priest-and-Levite pattern more than the Samaritan's. Pair Luke 10:25 with James 1:27, Galatians 6:10 ("toward all"), and Matthew 5:46-47 ("if you love only those who love you, what reward do you have?") for the cumulative case.

## NWT Issue

As at Luke 18:18 and Mark 10:17, the NWT renders aiōnios zōē as "everlasting life" rather than "eternal life." The same systematic NWT pattern across the New Testament. Standard translations vary, but most prefer "eternal" because aiōnios carries a qualitative dimension (the life of the age to come) alongside its durative dimension. "Everlasting" emphasises duration only, fitting the JW expectation of unending biological life on a paradise earth.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [James Defines Pure Religion — and It Isn't Preaching](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/james127-pure-religion.md) — James 1:27 / Matthew 5:46-47 / Galatians 6:10 [Practice]