Week 3-NEIGHBOUR

What are some of the character traits of a ‘good neighbour’?

The first part about being a good neighbour is this:

Love Everyone You Possibly Can

James 2:8–9 NIV

If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.

Now, james defines favouritism here:

James 2:2–4 NIV

Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

It’s easy to say ‘don’t discriminate’ in minor ways. don’t pick on skin color, or dress, etc. That’s just basic human decency.

But this isn’t about ‘minor differences’ - this is about grace and mercy. It’s about not being judgmental.

And james explains it that way- at the end of this paragraph, he says:

James 2:12–13 NIV

Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

When God says, love your neighbour, we need to remember that

God’s scales weigh mercy as greater than judgment

When you’ve got two options - mercy on one side, judgment on the other - Paul says, mercy’s better.

Now, it’s easy to overlook a person’s sins when they don’t directly impact you in any meaningful way.

But what if they’re actively out to get you? Against you? Where’s the line?

Matthew 5:43–46 NIV

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?

So basically, Jesus says, loving people who are nice back is so easy, anybody could do it. Toddlers know how to be nicer to nice people than to mean people.

But we’re called to be so much more than that. We’re called to be different than the rest of the world.

And it’s important to recognize here - Jesus says love our enemies so that you may be children of God.

The bible teaches us - God sees that every person on earth can love those who love them back.

But he looks at the people who say they are His children, and he looks at how well they love their enemies.

Loving only people who love you is about benefit.

Loving your enemies is about sacrifice.

Sometimes, loving our enemies, loving the people against us - it will feel like torture.

But this is what Jesus did first for us.

Colossians 1:21–22 NIV

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—

So Jesus died for us, while WE were HIS enemies. His love for His enemies was so great, that it led to death. But in death, Christ opened the door for great life, and healing, and restoration.

And we can’t expect to see God’s great deliverance in our own lives unless we’re willing to see it through to sacrifice.

But let’s do more than just say, ‘show mercy when it’s required’. ‘Love peopel when you have an occassion to.’

If we want to REALLY see what God can do,

Seek out more people to show mercy to

This doesn’t have to be only a reaction. ‘If somebody I know does something that requires mercy, I’ll show it!’.

Why not actively seek it out? Go and make friends with the ‘sinners’. Get to know that neighbour that is seriously just the worst. Focus your effort ON that person that seems so different and so difficult.

If God values mercy so much, why not try and find all the situations you possibly can to give out mercy?

Let’s say somebody offered you 10 bucks for every time you said hello to someone. Would you sit down, and say, ‘ok, so, I say hello roughly 12 times a day, so I should expect 120 bucks’.

Or would you go, plop yourself in the middle of the busiest intersection you could possibly find, and rake in the dough?

If giving out mercy and loving others is so valuable to God - try and create as many opportunities to show it as you possibly can.

The second part of ‘being a good neighbour’ is this:

Love others more than yourself

Galatians 5:13–14 NIV

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Now there’s a REALLY important truth here we need to understand.

Paul says we can fully and faithfully express the law - as in, the entire summation of God’s set of general expectations on humanity - by saying ‘love your neighbour as yourself’.

So here’s a GREAT rule of thumb. Whenever there’s conflict, or disagreement, or whenever you come up against something that’s you and another person.

And any given day, any given situation, we really want to know God’s will and direction for our steps. We want to make sure we’re doing the right thing:

The BEST way to find out God’s expectation on the situation is by starting with the question

How can I use this situation to serve this person in love?

Because Paul is saying, everything God’s expressed can be - not just summarized, but actually fulfilled, accomplished - by serving the other person in humility and saying ‘love your neighbour as yourself’.

And here’s something you’ll find. As you step out in love - as you turn the other cheek, give the benefit of the doubt, see it from their point of view, keep trying - basically, as you focus on LOVE rather than judgment - you WILL see what God is working towards there.

STORY - friend who while he was in college, was being taken advantage of by his roomate, God said just keep doing all the dishes. Friend really helped a roomate through a hard phase in life without knowing it.

We worry about accidentally doing the wrong thing, but how awesome would it be to be the kind of people who are accidentally doing the right thing all the time?

SO my first practical advice was, ‘create more opportunities to have to show mercy’.

My second is this:

Fight for the bottom of the ladder.

Paul says, ‘of course God is working towards your freedom. of course you were made to be free’. He’s purifying us, he’s redeeming us, he’s making a place for us in heaven. God is lifting us up to be with him in perfection.

But Paul reminds us, the God who should be served came to serve. The God who wants us to never face death faced death on our behalf. The God from the very top brought Himself down to the very bottom.

John said of jesus, that he wasn’t even worthy to untie Jesus’ shoes, but Jesus showed his love by washing his disciple’s feet.

Philippians 2:5–8 NIV

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!

Jesus brought himself to the bottom of the ladder, and started pushing others up it.

Find more ways to give away. Find more situations that give you the chance to put somebody up higher on the ladder than yourself.

And this one, we also need to pay attention to something.

When you feel inclined to fight for your spot at the top, to push for your own preferences or desires - flip the script. Use that as a reminder to practice this.

Actively say, ok, because this is something that i’m trying to use to crawl up the ladder - I want the other person to get it instead. When you claw at something, as you’re holding that thing - give it away. Consider it a win when the other person feels on top. When THEY get the prize.

GOSPEL MESSAGE:

Jesus died to raise you up

I’ve heard too many people walk away from churches talking about God as a vindictive, judgmental, hateful figure. That’s not God. That’s people on earth trying to represent God without bothering to understand his character.

Romans 5:8 NIV

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

When we were the ‘bad guys’, when we were the ones that dropped the ball, messed everything up, did everything wrong - God didn’t come to judge. He came to save. He came to die.

God loves you so much that there’s nothing that you can do that would turn him away. He wants you to turn to him so badly that there’s nothing He wouldn’t go through to get you back. He wants you to have life so much that He was willing to die for it.

And you can expect Jesus to be there and lift you up when you’re at the bottom. To never show favourites and love another person more than you.

If that’s you today, this is an open invite for you.