Do You Love Your Neighbor?

Matthew 22:35-40

Message No. 0771 | Twitter @GodandUs | www.wisdom-speaks.ca

Preview

Thank God for a new week! We go out every day and we probably notice things that touch our consciences and inner spirits. While we need to be extra careful in today’s world, might there be some circumstances where God is asking us to act? The subject for this week is a small challenge for us to pay some attention to our environments and to see if there’s something God is asking us to do somewhere, somehow, or for someone. God bless you as you read.

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If you were to suggest another name for the Bible, what would it be? You may say, the word of God, or the Son of God, or Jesus Christ, and you will all be correct. However, what if I say Love is a good word that captures it all? In 1 John 4:7-8, the Bible says:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Love is powerful, and the Bible does not shy away from emphasizing its power. In Matthew 22:35-40, a lawyer approached Jesus, wanting to test him. It was one of those times when the religious rulers of those days were looking for all manner of excuses to trick Jesus into saying or doing something that would provide a legal ground for His arrest and prosecution. So, the lawyer asked, and Jesus responded:

"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

Jesus did not provide options to loving God or loving our neighbors. No one can claim to be a Christian if the person does not love his or her neighbors. Loving our neighbors isn’t just being polite to them or giving them food during Christmas or Easter periods. To understand what it means to love our neighbors, there is probably no better text than 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Look at how Paul defines love in verses 4-7:

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

As you can deduce from this text, loving our neighbors requires a lot of sacrifice. And if we are required to pay this kind of price for our neighbors, some might ask, just as the lawyer in Luke chapter 10, who is this my neighbor? Assuming that we are all familiar with Jesus’ answer in verses 30-37, popularly described as the Parable of the Good Samaritan, one would deduce that our neighbors are not just people that look like us, or speak the same language as us, or go to the same church as us, or live in the same neighborhood as us. Jesus, by far, widened this circle in the parable, essentially defining our neighbors as anyone in need around us or that we encounter during our daily activities.

Well then, what is the proof that I love my neighbors? From Paul’s definition and from the Parable of the Good Samaritan, we can conclude that, for us to love our neighbors, we must show compassion towards them. The Good Samaritan showed compassion towards the man who was robbed and wounded by thieves on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho. Do you show compassion to people in dare need of help? The priest and the Levite who saw the man couldn’t be bothered, they had somewhere to go, and this was more important than caring for the wounded. Do you prioritize your agenda over those in critical need?

Can you sacrifice a little something to help someone who otherwise may not make it to the other side of the bridge? The Good Samaritan had no business paying attention to the man who needed help. Jews and Samaritans were enemies, as Jews saw them as infidels. This animosity was enough for the Samaritan to ignore the Jew who needed help, but the love and the compassion in his heart overruled, and he put all offenses aside and helped. Can we let go of all offenses and assist people around us who need our help?

Do you love your neighbor? As we go about our daily activities, we are not likely to see a label on anyone’s head saying, ‘Your Neighbor.’ What we will see are people who may need a little help with something that we can offer – a little attention, a quick prayer, a little invitation to Christ, a life-saving suggestion or action. It does not mean that we should go all out intruding into people’s businesses, but the inner spirit in us may prompt us to do something somewhere. Our duty is to stop and ask our Father, is this my neighbor? Do you need me to do anything, Lord?

What to Do?

Any act of kindness is good, even if it’s buying a cup of coffee for a policeman who has been working hard and need a little break. We may sometimes think that these people don’t like us, which is not true, but even if it is, did Jews like the Samaritans?