The Purpose of Loving Our Neighbors

Who here has good neighbors?

I know Alan and Connie do. Their neighbor, who doesn’t even attend this church, came out yesterday and helped clean up around the church.

I told him how nice it was that he would do this for us, and he responded, “When Alan needs help, I’m there.”

Now, that’s a good neighbor. Better than State Farm, even.

We haven’t gotten to know all our neighbors. For some reason, one of them seems to go out of her way to avoid us. Maybe she’s heard about me?

But we have had the chance to get to know a couple of others. One of them calls out to me — “Hey, neighbor!” — whenever she comes outside and sees me working in our screen room.

And another one came into our house and made herself at home last year when workers were there repairing damage from a broken water heater.

It turns out that she has dementia, and she was pretty confused that day. So Miss Lynn and I sat with her a bit in our living room, and I figured out how to get in touch with her husband at work. And then I walked her back to her house and waited outside for him to get home so he could take care of her.

Neighbors can be a bit of a mixed bag. We’ve had anonymous ones and terrible ones and a few good ones.

Frankly, the last one I remember being really good friends with was Donnie Whittington, who lived across the street from us when I was a boy in Portsmouth. He and I hung out together all the time.

Ever since we moved away from there when I was 11, I’ve never found a neighbor whom I would say became a friend. I’ve been friend-LY with some of them.

But the truth is that, for the most part, I’ve lived as most folks do in America these days. We might say hello to the neighbors when we see them outside, and maybe we’ll even stop and chat at the mailbox for a few minutes once in a while. Mostly, though, we all seem to live pretty much separate lives, moving in our own separate circles.

But the truth is that God calls us to something greater.

Remember when the lawyer tried to trap Jesus by asking Him which was the great commandment in the Law?

Remember how Jesus responded?

Matthew 22:37–40 NASB95

And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

Perhaps you’ll recall that I have said these two commandments are really two sides of a coin. The great and foremost commandment, as Jesus said, is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.

And if you DO love God that way, then you’ll love the people He loves — and among those people is your neighbor. Yes, even the one who reported you to the homeowner’s association for needing to power wash your driveway.

Now, for the last couple of weeks, as we have been working our way through this series I’ve called “The Church — Revealed,” we’ve been talking about the purpose of the church.

Maybe you’ll recall that a couple of weeks ago, I said the purpose of the church is to worship God. That means to proclaim the greatness of God — to ascribe to God the worth that is His. In worshiping God, we are declaring our love for Him.

And one of the best ways we can declare our love for God is by becoming more like His Son, Jesus, who perfectly represented the perfect character of His Father while He was here on earth.

That’s discipleship, and we said last week that it happens best within the context of the gathered church.

As we gather together, whether on Sundays or on Saturday clean-up days, we have the opportunity to help one another grow in our Christian faith, to become more and more like Jesus.

Discipleship IS worship. Discipleship is part of how we love God, how we worship Him. And if loving your neighbor as yourself is the flip side of the coin, then I would suggest to you that loving your neighbor is ALSO worshiping God.

In loving our neighbors as ourselves, we bring glory to God. In loving our neighbors, we show that what’s important to God is also important to us.

And so, what I will argue today is that loving our neighbors well is another facet of the church’s one purpose — to worship God.

But what I want to point out right from the start is that this commandment wasn’t new to the time of Jesus. And it’s not new to the Church Age, which began at Pentecost, when Peter preached his sermon and 3,000 souls were added to the new church.

From the beginning, this is what God desired of individuals and of communities.

In fact, when Jesus made that reply to the lawyer, He was quoting from the Old Testament Book of Leviticus, where God had said:

Leviticus 19:18 NASB95

‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.

But the thing about this commandment is that it’s kind of broad. What, exactly does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself?

Maybe it means something different to you than it does to me or to the person sitting next to you. Especially because we interpret this word, “love” in so many different ways, “love your neighbor as yourself” could be a matter of interpretation.

Of course, God knew this about people. He knew that we would look for whatever loopholes we thought we could find.

He knew that, in our sinful, self-involved nature, we would look for ways to elevate ourselves, and that as often as not our own elevation would be at the expense of our neighbors’ physical, emotional, and even spiritual well-being.

And then, even as we saw the wreckage of hurt that we’d left behind, we’d look up to God and say, right along with Cain, “What? Am I my brother’s keeper?”

So, God gave the people of Israel — his chosen people who were supposed to represent His character in the world — an explanation of what it would look like to love their neighbors as themselves.

First, He did it in the 10 Commandments, half of which deal with our relationships with one another.

Then, He did it in the other 603 or so other commandments He gave them throughout the Torah, the first five books of what we know as the Old Testament. A large percentage of those commandments deals with relationships between people.

And finally, He did it in the writings of the prophets, much of which proclaimed God’s coming judgment because of His people’s failure to love one another.

But there is a passage in the Book of Deuteronomy where this commandment — love your neighbor as yourself — is distilled into an illustration that cuts right to the heart of what it means to love your neighbor as yourself. You’ll find it in Deuteronomy, chapter 22.

Now this passage is part of a long list of what the NASB labels “Sundry Laws.” It’s hard to connect them or to find a common theme. So we’re just going to concentrate on the first four verses of this chapter.

Deuteronomy 22:1–2 NASB95

“You shall not see your countryman’s ox or his sheep straying away, and pay no attention to them; you shall certainly bring them back to your countryman. “If your countryman is not near you, or if you do not know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall remain with you until your countryman looks for it; then you shall restore it to him.

Let’s stop there for a moment.

Your neighbor’s problem — and remember that Jesus defined “neighbor” in very broad terms — your neighbor’s problem is your problem. That’s what God is saying here through Moses.

If you see your countryman’s ox or sheep wandering off, don’t just go on your merry way and pretend you didn’t notice it. Don’t think to yourself that someone else will take care of it.

Even worse, don’t say to yourself, “Well, thank God that’s not MY sheep; good luck to old Joe down the road. I hope he finds that sheep someday.”

No. If you see that sheep or ox wandering, then YOU have a responsibility to get it back home. Furthermore, if your neighbor’s not home to put it back in the barn or whatever, then YOU have a responsibility to take it back home with you and CARE for it until your neighbor can pick it up for himself.

Of course, most of us don’t have sheep or oxen, and most of us don’t have neighbors who have sheep or oxen. So, we’re off the hook then, right?

Of course not! God gave this specific example to illustrate a general principle. We are ALL our brother’s keepers. We are all responsible for helping when we see a neighbor in need.

So, individually, we might help the widow down the road by cutting her grass or putting out her trash.

And as a church, we might — as our Missions and Evangelism team did recently — help a prospective high school graduate in Suffolk pay off his student debts so he could receive his diploma. As a church, we might send money to help with food distribution in Ukraine or to help care for the elderly in Haiti.

And we get a clue about this larger meaning in the next two verses.

Deuteronomy 22:3–4 NASB95

“Thus you shall do with his donkey, and you shall do the same with his garment, and you shall do likewise with anything lost by your countryman, which he has lost and you have found. You are not allowed to neglect them. “You shall not see your countryman’s donkey or his ox fallen down on the way, and pay no attention to them; you shall certainly help him to raise them up.

Do you see that? Just as we must help reunite a countryman — a neighbor — with his lost donkey, we must do likewise with anything that is lost. And I would suggest that includes your neighbor’s dignity.

So, if your neighbor is in need somehow and you know it, you have a responsibility to help to whatever degree you can do so.

“You are not allowed to neglect them.”

That word that’s translated as “neglect” here can mean “hide yourself.” And when I read the line this way — “You are not allowed to hide yourself” — I’m reminded of the parable of the good Samaritan.

Remember? A man was walking on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho and was attacked by robbers, who beat him and left him for dead.

A priest came by and then a Levite, and both of them, instead of helping the man, crossed over to the other side of the road. They hid themselves from him.

They pretended they didn’t see the need that was right in front of them. Only the Samaritan passing by stopped and gave aid to the man.

In fact, it was with this parable that Jesus defined the idea of “neighbor” to the man who had asked Him, “Who is my neighbor?”

From Luke, chapter 10, where this parable appears:

Luke 10:36–37 NASB95

“Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”

The Samaritan showed the beaten man love and compassion. He was a neighbor to that man, because he saw that he had a need. And he did what he could do to fulfil that need.

I want to tell you that I see so much love and compassion within this church these days that it just makes my heart swell.

In the compassionate way you have come alongside grieving families. In the loving way you have come alongside members who are sick. In the gracious way you have supported a growing number of missions. In the many ways — large and small — that you have reached out to the community in love.

And by these things, I see that the love of God abides in this church. I don’t worry anymore about what the Apostle John was worried about when he wrote:

1 John 3:17 NASB95

But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?

I see many more Samaritans in this church today than I see priests and Levites. I see you loving your neighbor as yourself, and I praise God for it. And God is worshiped not just in my praising but in your doing.

But the truth is that much of the loving our neighbors as ourselves that we have been doing has been easy. I don’t mean to discount your efforts in the least.

What I mean is that it’s relatively easy to come alongside beloved church members who are sick. It’s relatively easy to mourn with friends who have lost loved ones. It’s relatively easy for us to send money to help people in nations where they’re afflicted.

And don’t get me wrong. We are called to do those things. We’re called to love these people. But we’re also called to love the way that Jesus loved.

We are called, as the Apostle Paul put it in Philippians, chapter 2, to have the same attitude that Jesus had.

Philippians 2:5–8 NASB95

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Because of His great love for sinners — in other words, for all of us — Jesus gave up the glory that He had in heaven. He gave up His right to be honored and worshiped as King and Lord over all.

He emptied Himself of all that honor and glory, and He came to live as a man here on earth. He came to live a sinless life as a man so that we could see how a life in complete submission to God and to the Holy Spirit should look.

He came to die a shameful death on a cross, taking upon Himself the sins of all mankind and their just punishment.

And He did that so that all who believe in Him and put their faith in His sacrificial death and supernatural resurrection as their only means of being reconciled to God could be saved and have eternal life.

He humbled Himself so that we could be lifted up. And He did this while we were yet sinners. We do not have to clean up our act to come to Him. Indeed, we cannot!

He gave His life for we who, because of our sins, were enemies of God. And even as He was being tortured on the cross, He called out, “Father, forgive them!”

What I want to suggest to you this morning is that we are called to a similar kind of sacrificial love.

A love that sacrifices pride for humility. A love that sacrifices our right to justice for mercy. A love that reaches down in grace to those who — just like every one of us — do not deserve it.

A love that forgives and seeks to bless even our enemies. Even those who, as Jesus put it in the Sermon on the Mount, “insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.”

Jesus said that when those things happen to us, we are blessed. BLESSED! And as I have said so many times before, we are blessed so that we can bless others.

So, then I think we have to ask here just WHO we are supposed to pass our blessing along to in such circumstances.

For the answer, let me get you to turn to Exodus, chapter 23, and let’s talk once again about donkeys and oxen. We’ll pick up in verse 4.

Exodus 23:4–5 NASB95

“If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey wandering away, you shall surely return it to him. “If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying helpless under its load, you shall refrain from leaving it to him, you shall surely release it with him.

Wait. What?

Here are two situations juste like the ones we looked at from the Book of Deuteronomy. A donkey or an ox is wandering away from his owner. Or the donkey has fallen and can’t get up because of its heavy load.

And we know from Deuteronomy that we aren’t allowed to hide ourselves when we see the need of a countryman — someone who’s easy to love because they’re on our side.

But this passage raises the stakes, doesn’t it? This is going to be much harder, isn’t it?

This is going to require us to humble ourselves. This is going to require us to set aside our right to be indignant about how we’ve been treated. This is going to require us to act with grace and mercy.

Just the way that Jesus did when He emptied Himself. Just the way that Jesus did when He took on the form of a bond-servant.

Just as Jesus did when He humbled Himself. Just as Jesus did when He graciously gave His very life so that we who were His enemies because of our sins against Him and His Father, could be saved.

We have a responsibility to graciously reach out in love to our enemies. We have a responsibility to come to the aid of those who hate us.

I’m not going to get into details here, but I know that some of you — some of us — are even now experiencing just the sort of maliciousness that Jesus described in the Sermon on the Mount.

There are those who speak falsely of you and say all manner of evil about you for the things you are doing in Jesus’ name and for His glory.

I want to suggest to you that this is an opportunity for your discipleship, an opportunity for you to become more like Jesus.

He came offering eternal life. He came promising to help the helpless. And he was reviled for it. He was falsely accused and then put to death on the cross.

Can you imagine how much it must have hurt Jesus to have the very people He had come to save spit on Him and curse Him, even to claim that He must have come from Satan?

And yet, from the very cross where they had nailed His hands and feet, wearing the crown of thorns they had made to mock Him, battered and bruised and bleeding from their abuse, He said, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.”

I am here to tell you this morning that these people who hate you are your neighbors. We are called to love them just as we do the ones who love us.

And in the end, it may not change anything. Certainly, we know that most of those for whom Jesus died will go to their graves hating Him, denying Him, and saying all manner of evil against Him.

Nonetheless, He loved them sacrificially, no less than He sacrificially loved we who have followed Him in faith.

I’m not going to say that this will be easy. This is not the broad road that we’re on. For we who follow Jesus, the road is narrow and the gate is small.

And we are called to carry our own crosses along this road. We’re called to deny ourselves, to give up what we think we are owed and submit to His will for us. Which may well be persecution and slander to the end that we become more like Him.

Sure, let’s love the people who are easy to love. And let’s love them well.

But this week, I want to challenge you to love those who don’t deserve your love. In that way, you will be like Jesus, who loved each one of us, even though we didn’t deserve His love.

Let us worship Him THIS way.