Biblical Reflections

By Mark Eytcheson

 Love your neighbor

Mark 12:30-31
"‘And you shall love the lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

Just how important is this love your neighbor idea? It is so important that the Bible puts it second only to loving God. But you don't understand! You don't know my neighbor! It does not matter who your neighbor is. God does not command us to only have nice neighbors, he only commands us to love our neighbors.

That brings up a good question, though. Who exactly is our neighbor? The person next door, or the person across the street? How about on the next corner? A certain man asked Jesus that question, and that answer is explored next.

Luke 10:30-37
Jesus replied and said "A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went off leaving him half dead. And by chance a certain priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
But a certain Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said ‘Take care of him; and whatever
more you spend, when I return, I will repay you.'
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." And Jesus said to him, "Go and do the same."

The answer, as we see here, is that your neighbor is anyone you come across or have contact
with. It is interesting that Jesus chose a Samaritan to be the good guy in this story, and not the important religious leaders that passed by the man without helping. A Samaritan of all people! The Jews were both openly and subtly hostile to the Samaritans, considering them to be inferior half-breeds physically and culturally. Perhaps because of this Jesus chose him to be the example in
this teaching rather than the outwardly religious community members. A lot of people do many things in the name of God, or for religious convictions, and many think themselves to be spiritual, or to be important in other ways. But the thing that is required of those who love God is that they love their neighbor as themselves. Love has no cultural or racial boundaries.

The Samaritan was declared to be the neighbor of the injured man because he chose to be his neighbor. He went out of his way to help someone who probably would have crossed to the other side of the road rather than walk near him or look at him or help him in any way. I am sure you can think of many people who have conflicting cultures or are at war with one another because of
differing ideologies or color or religion, or differences in standard of living. You have seen or encountered people who are "different" from you, not the same. There may be people you find contemptible, or maybe are even a little afraid of, or maybe that you think are better than you.
God loves everyone with the same intense love, and this makes us all much more the same than any perceived or imagined differences that result from variations in language, or up-bringing, or culture, or what kind of job you have, or social status.

Go out of your way to help others. Find people who you consider to be different, and talk to them, and get to know them. Decide that anyone you meet or see is your neighbor, and reach out to love them. Believe that you are where God wants you to be, to stand for Him with by loving those you meet.