Like a Good Neighbor

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

I know over the years, we’ve had some really great neighbors. Like our neighbors from our first apartment in Albuquerque who became good friends who we ended up going on skiing trips together. And we have some great neighbors next door to us now, too.

And then there are the neighbors like the couple who was part of a band that come home every Saturday night after their gig and sat on their porch that was right next to our bedroom window and would drink and party until the early hours on Sunday morning right before I had to preach.

Tension

Now I know we’d all like to have the kind of good neighbors we had in Albuquerque or the ones that live next door to us now. And we’d rather avoid the kind of neighbors that party all night.

So this morning, I’m going to share with you the secret to having good neighbors:

If I want to have good neighbors, I need to be a good neighbor

Truth

For the next four weeks, we’re going to talk about what it takes to be a good neighbor. So I’ve titled this series “How to Neighbor”. We’ll begin this morning by going all the way back to the Old Testament to a passage that reveals not only how to be a good neighbor, but why I need to do that. So go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Leviticus 19. You’ll find the book of Leviticus near the front of your Bible right after Genesis and Exodus. Unfortunately, a lot of people tend to shy away from the book of Leviticus because it contains a lot of laws and commands that just don’t seem relevant to us. But as we’ll discover this morning, while some of the specific commands are no longer binding on us, the heart behind those commands is just as relevant for us today as the day they were written.

Let’s begin with the overall theme of the chapter which is found in verses 1-2:

Leviticus 19:1–2 ESV

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

Most of us are familiar with the command to be holy because God is holy. It is repeated elsewhere several times in Leviticus and also quoted by Peter in his first letter. And I think most of the time, we tend to view that command as a call to be follow God’s commands because if we do that we will be good, pious, religious people.

But that is not what God is saying here at all. The word translated “holy” here means “to be set apart”. So God wasn’t telling the Israelites to follow His commands in order to become holy. They were to do that instead because they already were holy. They were holy because they were God’s chosen people. They were holy because God had set them apart from the surrounding nations. So really what God is asking the people to do here is to live a life that is distinct from the world around them because they already are holy and set apart. They are to live into who God has called them to be. And the same is true for us.

As we’re going to see in this series, the Bible defines our neighbors rather broadly. It doesn’t just include the people who live next door or in our neighborhood, but rather anyone who we come in contact with as we live life.

I would like to think that we would all desire to be good neighbors. But the truth is that we live in a culture where that is no longer the norm. It sure seems like we are seeing more and more examples that lead us to believe that being a good neighbor is no longer a priority for many people:

We see the rise of white supremacist groups who are becoming more and more vocal and aggressive.

We still see that people are mistreated and even killed because of the color of their skin, maybe not as much as in the past, but still far too often.

We’ve always had political disagreements, but in the past we could discuss them in a civil manner. Instead of having civil conversations about the issues, every single political campaign has turned into a battle of character assassination aimed at ruining the reputation of one’s opponent. It is common to excoriate those who have different views and call them names.

In general, people tend to be very selfish and self-centered so they don’t really care who they might hurt in their efforts to get what they want or think they deserve.

But if we are going to be holy, we can’t live like that. We need to be distinct and set apart and do everything we can to be good neighbors. Fortunately for us, Leviticus 19 contains some very practical and relevant instruction for us on how to do that.

As I said earlier, the Bible defines a neighbor very broadly. It doesn’t just refer to the person who lives next door to me but everyone I come into contact with in my daily life - co-workers, family, the clerk at the grocery store, the server at the restaurant. We really see that in this passage. There are two different Hebrew words that are translated “neighbor” in this passage and each of them is a very broad term that could be translated “associate”, “companion” or “fellow citizen”.

We’re going to look at verses 9-18 together this morning. You will notice that this passage is broken into 5 sections that each end with the phrase “I am the Lord” or “I am the Lord your God”. In essence, after each section God is saying “This is the way you are to treat your neighbor because this is how I have treated you.” God is essentially asking us to treat other humans, created in His image, in a way that is consistent with His character and how He has treated us.

Application

So we’ll tackle each section separately since each addresses one of...

5 WAYS TO BE A GOOD NEIGHBOR

Be generous (vs. 9-10)

Leviticus 19:9–10 ESV

“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.

Throughout the Bible we see God’s heart for the down and out in society. Here, He provides for the needs of the poor and even for the foreigners who lived among the Israelites. And He does that through some good neighbors.

Those who were well enough off to have farms and fields were to leave some of the harvest at the edges of the field for those who were poor and hungry. And they were also to leave the gleanings rather than gathering up every last bit of fruit or grain for themselves. We see this command in operation in the book of Ruth where Boaz makes sure that Ruth and Naomi are provided for as Ruth is allowed to gather food from his fields.

We could probably spend our entire time just on this first principle, but let me note just a couple important things that we see here:

First is God’s concern for those who were not citizens of Israel. I’m not going to get into the politics of immigration this morning because I know there are strong feelings on all sides of the issue. But what I will say is that as disciples of Jesus, we need to be good neighbors to immigrants. As we’ll talk about more in a moment, we should not look down upon them for the situation that they are in. And when it is possible to help meet their needs without violating the law, we ought to be a part of that. Every one of those people needs Jesus just as much as you and me.

Second, this is the responsibility of the church. This is addressed to individuals, not the government. And we see the same thing in the New Testament. When Jesus commands his followers to take care of the less fortunate, He is not advocating a government program to do that. He is saying that His disciples are to personally be generous with the resources He has entrusted to them in order to provide for the less fortunate.

So if I am going to be a good neighbor, I need to be generous with my time, talent, and treasure in order to help others.

Be honest (vs. 11-12)

Leviticus 19:11–12 ESV

“You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another. You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.

This whole section deals with being honest with others - not stealing from them, not lying to them, not deceiving them, not failing to follow through on our promises.

Most of us would probably consider ourselves to be honest, but we need to continually be on our guard to make sure we are genuinely honest in our dealing with others:

Do you follow through when you make a promise to help someone out with a project? Or do you just blow it off because there is something else you would rather do?

When you scratch someone’s car with your runaway grocery cart or your car door, do you leave a note with your contact information? Or do you just take off and leave them to discover that themselves?

When the cashier fails to charge you for an item you are buying or gives you too much change do you let them know or do you just keep the extra items or money?

I could share a lot more examples, but I think you get the idea.

If I am going to be a good neighbor, then I must be completely honest in my dealings with others, even when that might be costly to me personally.

Be kind (vs. 13-14)

Leviticus 19:13–14 ESV

“You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning. You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.

In this section we read about several ways that people were being unkind to each other.

In the culture of that day, the people didn’t have checking or savings accounts or credit cards so they counted on being paid at the end of each day so they could feed their families. So holding back those wages amounted to essentially robbing that person and their family of basic sustenance.

Most people in that culture believed that any kind of a physical disability was due to a person’s sin. So those people were often ridiculed and made fun of.

The basic problem was that the people who treated others unkindly had no fear of God. So God tells them that the antidote to being unkind to others is to fear Him because every one of our neighbors is made in the image of God.

Today one of the most common ways that people are unkind to each other is social media. For some reason people feel free to be unkind to people with their words in a way they would never do face-to-face. So as disciples of Jesus, if we’re going to use social media and other digital forms of communication, we need to carefully guard against being unkind.

Most of you are probably familiar with Ben’s Bells, a non-profit organization whose goal is to inspire people to practice kindness as a way of life. While I’m thankful for what they do, it’s also really disheartening to think that as a culture we’ve come to a place where we need an organization like that to encourage people to be decent human beings who are kind to others.

If I’m going to be a good neighbor then I need to treat everyone with kindness.

Be impartial (vs. 15-16)

Leviticus 19:15–16 ESV

“You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord.

We see two examples of partiality that were causing problems in Israel:

There were two sets of justice in Israel’s judicial system - one for the rich and powerful and another for the poor and helpless.

People were engaging in partiality by gossiping about others in a way that damaged their reputations within the community.

Unfortunately we see these same problems still exist here in the United States in 2020. We often see that there are still two sets of justice, sometimes based on whether a person is rich or well connected or whether they are poor. At other times that kind of prejudice is based on the color of their skin or where they live. While we can’t always do something about that, being a good neighbor means that, at a minimum, we won’t be a part of that.

Let me ask a few questions that might make you a little uncomfortable:

Let’s say you get called to jury duty. Do you immediately pre-judge the guilt or innocence of the defendant just because of his skin color or because he has tattoos or piercings?

When someone comes into church, do you immediately make assumptions about them for any of those same reasons?

In your job do you treat people differently based on what they look like or whether or not you think you’re going to benefit from them in some way - say a good tip, or a big sale with a nice commission?

And since we’re addressing gossip in this section, let me give you a couple of practical ways to avoid being a gossip:

Before you say something about someone else, ask: Is it true, is it necessary, is it kind?

Refuse to gossip yourself and refuse to listen to others when they gossip.

Be peaceable (vs. 17-18)

Leviticus 19:17–18 ESV

“You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

Inevitably, we are going to be wronged, or at least feel like we’eve been wronged by others. When that occurs, we need to make sure we don’t sulk and allow our anger to morph into hatred. We see here that the offended party is to take the initiative to address the issue with the one who has offended him or her. It is clear here that the failure to do so is just as much sin as whatever the other person has done to cause the offense.

Not surprisingly, we see that Jesus confirms this principle:

Matthew 18:15–17 ESV

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

The purpose here is reconciliation and restoration of the relationship. Obviously, that doesn’t always happen, but good neighbors make sure that they do all that they can to promote that. As Paul writes:

Romans 12:18 ESV

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

And then once we’ve done everything we can to restore that relationship, we just need to move on and trust God for the results. We need to forgive the other person, even if they don’t ask for forgiveness.

Action

If I want to have good neighbors, I need to be a good neighbor

I am pretty confident that if we’re all honest this morning, we have all failed to be a good neighbor with one or more people in our lives - maybe a family member, or a co-worker, or even the family that lives next door to us. So I want to encourage all of us to make this really practical in our lives. So I want to ask you to do two things this week:

Pray and ask God to reveal anyone in your life to whom you have not been a good neighbor.

Pray through the list of 5 ways to be a good neighbor that we developed this morning and identify one concrete action that you can take to be a good neighbor to that person. Then, if possible, carry out that action this week.

Inspiration

Being a good neighbor is not easy and none of us do it perfectly. But it is so important for us to be good neighbors that Jesus put on a body of flesh and came to this earth to be a living example of what it looks like to be a good neighbor.

He was so generous that He gave His life for us to make it possible for sinful men to have a personal relationship with a holy God.

He was completely honest. He was clear with people that they were all sinners and that their sin separated them from God and they there was nothing they could do on their own to pay the penalty for that sin.

He was kind to people, especially to the down and out in the culture of His time. And He took away the stumbling block that kept people from a relationship with God.

He was impartial. Through Him everyone has the opportunity to have their sins forgiven and to have a relationship with God, regardless of race, how much money you make, or where you live or what kind of education you have, or any other characteristic that might cause other humans to be partial.

He was peaceable. He wasn’t afraid to confront people about their sin, but He did that with love and compassion. And then He died on the cross and rose from the grave to make it possible for us to be reconciled to God and have our relationship with Him restored.

None of us have the power to be good neighbors on our own. But when we put our faith in Jesus, He makes us into new creatures and He sends His Holy Spirit to live permanently inside of us so that we can become the kind of good neighbors who reflect the love of God into a world that so desperately needs to see that.