SYNOPSIS: Both Moses and Jesus said it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus further clarified that in the Parable of the Good Samaritan by defining “neighbor” as anyone who is within our ability to love and help. Then he upped the ante by saying in no uncertain terms that loving them was equally important as loving God. Plain and simple: you love your God when you love your neighbor. Now that is true social responsibility!
Going Deep // Focus: Deuteronomy 22:1-4
If you see your neighbor’s ox or sheep or goat wandering away, don’t ignore your responsibility. Take it back to its owner. If its owner does not live nearby or you don’t know who the owner is, take it to your place and keep it until the owner comes looking for it. Then you must return it. Do the same if you find your neighbor’s donkey, clothing, or anything else your neighbor loses. Don’t ignore your responsibility. If you see that your neighbor’s donkey or ox has collapsed on the road, do not look the other way. Go and help your neighbor get it back on its feet!
Both Moses and Jesus said it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus further clarified that statement in the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37) by defining for us that our neighbor is anyone who is within our ability to love and help. He then upped the ante on neighborly love by saying that it was right next to loving God in order of importance:
“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:36-40)
“Equally important.” Said another way, that means you cannot love God without loving your neighbor. That is a pretty clear and strong message Jesus is sending anyone who would love God.
So what ever happened to “love your neighbor as yourself”? Wouldn’t you agree that in our modern don’t-stick-your-nose-in-someone-else’s-business culture that we treat neighborly love as optional? We are reluctant to open up our lives—and our homes—for fear of what it might cost us. We may have to actually get involved in their lives, spend time with them, along with our short supply of energy and money, and we might be forced to put our own privacy and convenience on the back burner. Man, this business of engaging with the guy next door is not as easy as it sounds!
And our neighbors don’t make it easy for us. They are just as reluctant to open up their lives to us. They are just as easily offended by our faith, our lifestyle and our political belief as we are theirs. If they know we are Christians, they may even gossip about us, marginalize us, declare us to be narrow and intolerant, and even take us to court for violating their safe zone. Our neighborhoods are no longer communities, they are a collection of houses in a row that serve as nothing more than bedrooms and restaurants. We now come home after work, open our garage doors, drive in, shut the door and go into our home, never appearing again until we drive off to work the next day. The back deck has replaced the front porch as the perch from which we do life. Neighboring is now a lost art.
And that is not biblical! Through Moses, God commanded his people not to mind their own business. They were to get involved. They were to help. They were to sacrifice their own convenience for the good of the community. They were to love their neighbor as they loved him. In fact, loving their neighbor was loving him.
If you desire to be an authentic follower of God, and if you desire to live under his favor, you cannot read a passage like this and remain reclusive. You have to get involved. You have to live the sacrificial life. You must be willing to risk loving your neighbor as yourself. Remember, you cannot love God if you don’t love the person within your ability to love, help, serve and have fellowship with. Within your ability—that is what defines your neighbor.
So what does that mean for you? I don’t know, but you need to think that through, and then begin to act on it. I do, too! All I know is that our love for God is stunted until we get this one right!
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