Do You Know Your Neighbors?
Lance Ford related the following story:
“I don’t know what to do for her,” my wife sniffled. “I don’t even know her name.”
My Saturday morning golf outing was placed on pause. Our peaceful weekend morning had come undone by the sound of cries from the house beside ours coming over the phone. It was the young wife’s birthday, and her husband had just loaded his boat and left for a fishing trip with his buddies. The young woman couldn’t believe her newlywed husband had not planned to spend the day with her. And now Sherri was crying because she was crying.
“Well, I don’t know what to do,” I told her. “If I knew him I would try to thump a little advice into him on how to be a decent husband.”
Sherri wanted to do something—anything to help—so she decided to send the young woman an anonymous bouquet of flowers with a card that said, “Happy Birthday. Know you are loved.”
That was eighteen years ago. We had not yet learned a lot about making a neighborhood livable. I am ashamed to say it, but we were too busy planting a church and raising our kids to view our neighborhood as a place we were called by the Lord and sent directly to reach and make better. We chose to live in our neighborhood based on how it would serve our personal wants and needs. We failed to realize that opportunities to bring something better to our neighbors—and have our own lives affected—were all around us.
Some of us were raised in an era when neighbors actually knew one another. Neighbors spent time with each other and helped one another, Contrast that with today, where it is not unusual for people to live next door to one another—for years in some cases—without even knowing each other’s names.
Heaven on Earth
The business of neighboring was enormously important to Jesus. He was the supreme people person, and He gave His followers a clear mandate on the matter.
Jesus was frequently cajoled and pestered by religious leaders attempting to trap him in theological arguments. One day one of these guys got more than he bargained for when he asked Jesus how he could inherit eternal life. It was almost as if he was just waiting for that question. A thought bubble above Jesus may have said, “I’m so glad you asked.”
And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” So he answered and said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ ” And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”
But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:25-29).
The religionist who asked Jesus about eternity didn’t have a problem with Jesus’ answer—up to a point. It is just that last little bit—“and your neighbor as yourself”—he wanted clarity on. But his motives were clear: Luke says he wanted to justify himself. To do so he needed to keep the definition of neighbor in the realm of the ethereal. To go literal with this idea of loving our neighbor would be too invasive and impractical. These must only be theological “beliefs” to be agreed with, not real-world commandments to be practiced.
It is easy for anyone to claim that she loves God with her all and all, because God is unseen. How can you tell whether a person really loves God or not? This is the problem our flesh usually has with Jesus. He actually means what He says. So the questioner wants Him to define neighbor. Jesus is more than happy to oblige.
(Luke 10:30-37) Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain [man] went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded [him], and departed, leaving [him] half dead. “Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. “Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. “But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. “So he went to [him] and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. “On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave [them] to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ “So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
Now the guy is really in a pickle. Jesus says the question we must ask is not, “Who is my neighbor?” because if that were the case then we could pick and choose who gets our love. We could go about our days qualifying or disqualifying who is eligible or deserving of our love. Jesus says we must ask ourselves, “Am I a neighbor?”
Who am I being a neighbor to?
Have you asked yourself that question lately? To whom are you showing the love of God?
I am convinced that one of the main hindrances to loving our neighbor today is that although we may know them, we really don’t know them very well at all. Like the good Samaritan, we must show love to our neighbors by meeting their needs. But how can we show them that Christ meets their needs if we don’t know them well enough to know their needs?
At New Covenant Baptist Church, we are asking God to help us over the next month to help us to love our neighbors by getting to know them. Be a neighbor to someone this month. Our strategy is that every member of New Covenant Baptist Church would get to know that person you really don’t know by demonstrating God’s love and kindness to a coworker, a neighbor, a friend, an extended family member, or someone else.
The idea is that we would point our community to the Lord Jesus Christ through our caring words and loving actions.
In the following weeks I will be sharing ideas for creative ways in which we, as families and individuals, can demonstrate Christ’s love. But for right now, would you pray about who God wants you to get to know better? Pray for those who will receive your kindness and love, that seeds of the Gospel will be planted in their hearts.
So think about who is known, but not known by you. Pray about loving them. Then do it!
