25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:25-29)
The rock band The Moody Blues released a song in 1970 (when music was music…lol) titled “Question” and the opening lyrics went like this:
Why do we never get an answer?
When we’re knocking at the door?
With a thousand million questions
About hate and death and war.
Being a kid at the time, I could relate to those lyrics.
I had a lot of questions. I still do. Ask anyone who has been in a planning or brainstorming meeting with me! I have to work hard to control my desire to “ask”.
I also like answering questions. It’s my best platform for teaching. Ask me a question and I will answer it and elaborate. I love it.
But, there are also people who ask questions that are insincere. Their motivation for asking is underhanded. They have a hidden agenda. There’s ”selfishness” to their question. This is what Jesus faced when the lawyer asked him a question. The lawyer asked a simple question, received the answer from Jesus and that should have been that. Yet, we read in verse 29 the lawyer asking another question. One that on the surface seemed legit: “Who is my neighbor?”. It wasn’t legit. The Bible records his motivation: “he wanted to justify himself”.
There’s the problem. They really don’t want their questions answered and when you give them a perfectly acceptable answer they simply ask another question ad infinitum until they justify their position. The popular subjects for people seeking to justify themselves include same sex marriage, men and women living together before marriage, alcohol use, tithing, etc…
I wrote this because you’re going to face these self-justifiers often. My advice is to try and answer as many questions as you can, but if the conversation seems to be going in circles, it probably is.
I started by quoting The Moody Blues so I guess I’ll finish by quoting them:
Why do we never get an answer
When we’re knocking at the door?
Because the truth is hard to swallow
I hope my readers will apply what they read before running off and Googling The Moody Blues. 
I’m hear these type of questions (ones you posted) more these days. Thanks for this Pastor Tom.
P.S. – “ad infinitum”? Impressive.
Hi Matt,
Yeah it seems to be the state of the church / world. Looking back before I was a Christian I probably did similar things (ask questions and never looking for an answer) so I understand it coming from a non-Christian but many “believers’ are doing the same thing. Sad.
I’m glad I impressed you. Tough thing to do.
God bless.