Hey Neighbor

Introduction

The idea of neighbor has changed drastically even since I was a child. I remember as a kid my neighbor and his wife would go out of town and he would actually pay me to check his mail and make sure his lights were on and off at a certain time. We knew our neighbors, we played outside with our neighbors and even ate with our nieghbors. This is what made the neighborhood special. I want us to think about neighbor on a most vast scale. Not just someone that lives next door to you but maybe the neighborhood adjacent to yours. The one with a larger police presence, with more liquor stores than grocery stores, where there’s more trash than sidewalk. I want us to think about the neighbor that might no love us back because of our ethnicity or our skin color. I want us to think abou the neighbor that may be in a same sex relationship, or ever is transgender, I want us to think about the neighbor that’s a single parent with multiple children. Or maybe even the neighbor that has spend the better half of adulthood in prison. How do we love this neighbor? Not only love this neighbor but love this neighbor as ourself.

Jesus is continuously faced with a number of questions that typically had nothing to do with the well-being of his followers but usually to catch him up in some cruficiable offense. The challenge in this dialogue is love by definition is perfection. Regardless of how imperfect we may be, love is the perfection that we need in a world full of heartache and pain. Truthfully love is the remedy to the world’s issues. The problem that persist is the fact that we value power, possessions and popularity more that we value loving one another.

How different would our world be if love was valued the way God created it to be valued.

Why Love is So Great

Love is deep because love is demonstrated. It’s something we can show, take pleasure and simaltaneously feel. Love is the foundation of the church. The sacrificial nature of love is why God saw fit to send Jesus to earth in effort to rid the world of it’s bondage to sin. There is nothing greater than love. Love is the foundation behind creation of all kinds.

We also have to be careful that we do not allow our expertise in the law to be the obstacle behind us loving our neighbor.

The Pharisees and the Saducees inability to see past the law kept them from truly getting to know Jesus. The questions they asked were to get Jesus in trouble with Rome, understand that religion and government were intermingled so heavily that there were times that issues of morality were punishable by law. We have to be careful because arrogance or the idea that we know a lot can push us to miss the people who could use the love of Jesus the most. Instead of trying to prove people right wrong, let’s focus on how the love of Jesus the gospel of Christ can help people turn thier life around.

Here’s the beauty about love. Love is not just a blessing, not only did sacrificial love save the world but to love God, and to love one another is a COMMANDMENT! Jesus alleviates any loophole, when we add heirarchy to Godly characteristics we will begin to justify our shortcomings by leaning on the things we are good at. Love is challenging for some people, forgiveness is challenging for some people, kindness is challenging for some people. Being better at one quality makes us no better or worse than any one!

1 John 4:7–8 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

When we know where true love comes from we understand the perfection behind it. Love is the essence of God’s character. In effort to know God is a reflection of love for God, others and ourselves.

Loving God Requires Us to Be Healthy in Totality

Mind, body and soul is the way that we show God that we love Him. The commandment is “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind”.

The authoritative nature of God is expressed to further align the idea that this is a command. “Lord your God” - Lord signifying supernatural authority over mankind. His position as ruler of this earth, and God, his being, the creator and sustainer of the universe. Not only is Jesus referring to His Father but also Himself. Matthew 28:18 “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” Not only has God commanded us to love, but Jesus is referencing his authority in this dialogue as well. Jesus references Deuteronomy 6:5 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”

The same word used for God in Matthew is the same word we see in John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Heart

How does your heart reflect the love of God? Do you love God with all of your heart? What does your inner self say about your relationship with God? My mind, my intentions, my purpose and desire is a definitive display of what my heart is set on.

2 Corinthians 9:7 “So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.”

Our hospitality, our ability to give is a reflection of our heart. How we treat people is a reflection of how we love God.

Soul

What is the true essence of our life in terms of what we think about, our the nature of our feelings toward God and this world. God cares about the soul, our character the nature of how we live is what will live forever with God or spend eternity in damnation. Our souls are valuable, so valuable that God would send His to be the savior of our Soul. To love with all of your soul is to love God with eternity in mind, to enjoy his presence, to long to worship him, but also even at the expense of losing my physical life I’m okay with that because I know my soul belongs to God.

Matthew 10:28 “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Mind

In everything that I do, God should be at the forefront. The way I understand life, my reasoning, my thinking, how I make decisions should be with God as a priority first. You may be able to fool man with your actions but understand we serve a God that understands and knows our thoughts!

I can display the greatest ability but if my mind is polluted eventually it will show.

1 Corinthians 14:14 “For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.”

My mind must be fixed on God in effort to truly be in communion with Him. See, I can sing the songs, I can physically participate in worship or even the day to day of reading my word, but knowing where my mind is, is typically between me and God. See often times we are shocked when people do certain things understand that these things have been manifesting in our mind for a very long time.

How are you prioritizing God, how are you showing that God is first in your life! See this is the first step to loving others is loving God and devoting ourselves to God the right way.

Love Your Neighbor

The world is in dire need of loving neighbors. As much as we celebrate the history of triumphs as it pertains to loving people, our communites are still fractured, systemic efforts to place people in survival mode has turned our communities into war zones and our political climate into a polarizing place of dissension.

Jesus died for all mankind, there were no conditions on who Jesus died for. We are all his creation and that means we belong to God His father!

Can we love our neighbor, in spite of differences?

We are in the midst of communities in which neighbors are killing each other, countries are in turmoil!

The world needs a change of heart, mind and soul! That can only come from Jesus!

Let’s find peace in loving one another! Sure Jesus did not want to be crucified between two thieves but love allowed Jesus to see sincerity on one of them as they were fastened to the cross like Him. My mistakes may lead me to a cross, but thank God that there can be a Jesus next to me during my worst moment and make space for me in eternity!