Who is My Neighbor?
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On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Question #1: What must I do to Inherit Eternal Life?
Question #1: What must I do to Inherit Eternal Life?
“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
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.’”
Love GOD with all your heart, soul, strength & mind.
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Love YOUR NEIGHBOR as yourself.
“ ‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.
The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right.
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
God’s most important commands are to love HIM and to love YOUR NEIGHBOR.
Question #2: Who is My Neighbor?
Question #2: Who is My Neighbor?
Neighbor does not mean EVERYONE.
Neighbor doesn’t mean the people you are COMFORTABLE WITH.
In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
Neighbor does not mean “THOSE PEOPLE”
Neighbor does not mean NON-BELIEVERS.
Neighbor does not mean PEOPLE IN NEED.
“ ‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.
Neighbor means “ONE LIVING OR LOCATED NEAR ANOTHER”
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.
Your neighbor is the person RIGHT NEXT TO YOU.
Why Love My Neighbor?
Why Love My Neighbor?
We have been COMMANDED to do so.
“We make our FRIENDS; we make our ENEMIES; but God makes our NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBORS.” (G.K. Chesterton, Heretics)
We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next-door neighbour. Hence he comes to us clad in all the careless terrors of nature; he is as strange as the stars, as reckless and indifferent as the rain. He is Man, the most terrible of the beasts. That is why the old religions and the old scriptural language showed so sharp a wisdom when they spoke, not of one’s duty towards humanity, but one’s duty towards one’s neighbour. The duty towards humanity may often take the form of some choice which is personal or even pleasurable. That duty may be a hobby; it may even be a dissipation. We may work in the East End because we are peculiarly fitted to work in the East End, or because we think we are; we may fight for the cause of international peace because we are very fond of fighting. The most monstrous martyrdom, the most repulsive experience, may be the result of choice or a kind of taste. We may be so made as to be particularly fond of lunatics or specially interested in leprosy. We may love Black people because they are black or German Socialists because they are pedantic. But we have to love our neighbour because he is there—a much more alarming reason for a much more serious operation. He is the sample of humanity which is actually given us. Precisely because he may be anybody he is everybody. He is a symbol because he is an accident.
G.K. Chesterton
Loving EVERYONE lets ME choose who to love. Loving my neighbor lets GOD choose.
Loving my neighbor can CHANGE the WORLD—and it already has.
Step #1:
Step #1:
LEARN your neighbors’ NAMES.