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And he answered, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.'
(Luke 10:27)
Scriptures to explore: Leviticus 19:18; Luke 10:29-37; I John 3:10; I John 4:20-21
From our first breath, we are learning how to interact with others and discovering our neighbors. These discoveries are not typically intentional, but develop out of our needs. As new born babies our neighbors are mom, dad, and our family. They take care of us, especially as they feed and change us. When we are not getting what we need we fuss until they respond to us. Born into this fallen world with a fallen nature (John 1:10; I John 2:15-16), we do not know or seek God (i Chronicles 12:14; i Corinthians 1:21; Galatians 4:8). Everything is filtered through our perspective and limited to our self-centered world. As a result, our understanding of neighbor is limited and distorted. We think only of ourselves and our interests. We have to be taught how to interact with others, to share our toys, and to say please and thank you. We have to be taught to consider other people's feelings. Though we are learning to interact with others, we remain self-focused. Other people are not our primary concern even when we feel good about specific people. We spend time with others and learn to do things for them, but at the core of our being we are selfish (Matthew 5:46; Luke 6:32). We compare others to ourselves, not seeing them as made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27). Rather than a Christ-like filter, we process things by how it benefits us and view our neighbors in terms of self-interest.
As we grow physically and mentally our world increases as do the places where we find neighbors. New people come into our life, yet we do not lose our self-focus, but simply discover new benefits with more people. If asked to identify our neighbors, we speak in terms of geography. Those who live next door, share backyards, or are on our street are our neighbors. Those whom we like and make us feel good are easily identified. In our heart we dismiss the people we do not like very much. We ignore them or interact only when necessary since they are no benefit to us. We do not love them because we are not concerned about them. The selfishness residing deep within our soul comes to the surface even as we spend time with and do things for others. In time our understanding of neighbor expands to include those who live in our town, go to our school, and work with us. Geographically our view of neighbors is expanding. Being part of society, we learn how to interact with others. We become aware of what is considered acceptable social behavior in various situations, which can vary by the people involved, the situation and even the location. We say that we are looking out for others and ourselves, which is true to the extent we are conditioned and trained to do so. But our heart is still self-centered, not Christ-centered. We are selective in who we accept in our town, school, and work so that not everyone is viewed as a neighbor. Adult life further expands our qualifications for a neighbor. Regional issues, events, and circumstance challenge us to consider people in a larger geographical area as potential neighbors. Our cultural background may influence our view of neighbors, especially when encountering those from other cultures. We find comfort in thinking of people from our culture as neighbors because they are like us. In today's world, we tend to view those who live in our nation as neighbors when issues concern us at a national level. But our fallen nature is still active, for one day we picture people in our region, culture, or nation as neighbors, and then another these same people are dismissed in our minds because they disagree with us on what we see as key concerns. Our flip-flopping may not be deliberate or hateful, yet it highlights the self-centeredness deep within our heart. They are neighbors as long as we have things in common.
Prior to our coming to faith in Christ, our view of neighbor is driven by self-interest. But when Christ captures our heart and mind (John 6:68) the way we identify and interact with would-be neighbors starts undergoing a major transformation. The internal shift takes place over time as we mature in Christ and learn to die to self (Galatians 5:24; I Peter 2:24). The classifications that ranged from local neighborhood to nation continue to be part of how we define a neighbor, but even those categories are expanding because of Christ and the gospel. New classifications impact our thinking and actions as we mature and face the ongoing challenge of loving our neighbors. Love remains a choice we have to make moment by moment. The difference we see in ourselves now is that through Christ we are learning to be aware of our choices as well as the internal battle that can take place within us. Being in Christ leads us to intentionally love others.
As we connect with Jesus' Church our definition of neighbor widens to include a local church and its larger governing body. Though we are in Christ, we may be challenged to think of people in other churches or branches of Christianity as neighbors since we view our church through our relationships and experience. Furthermore, since growing in maturity happens gradually, we battle against our selfish nature and deal with the spiritual reality of an enemy who seeks to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). As we mature, we recognize that other churches serve the varying needs of Christ's followers and the community (Ephesians 4:7; Ephesians 4:11-16). We discover that, like every other branch of the Christian faith, our particular branch also has a specific emphasis, which is just one of the concerns Christ has for his people (I Corinthians 12:4-7). We wrestle with how to respond in love when differences are highlighted (Ephesians 4:1-3). We make progress as we realize that those who are not like us are nevertheless part of the body of Christ. As we listen to Christ, his teachings challenge us to align our view of neighbor with his. By God's grace, we seriously consider and apply what it means to love our neighbors.
In the context of learning to live for Christ as part of his Church, our maturity really takes root when we understand that we are to be Christ's disciples and love the other disciples (John 15:12; John 15:17). Sometimes the choice to love Jesus' disciples is difficult and stretches us. Sometimes our attempts to love are not well received. Yet, we do not love his disciples because they are lovable, sometimes they are not, we love because Jesus' modeled love so we follow his lead. In the process, we find that loving each other, as disciples with all our faults and failures, prepares us to truly love our neighbors. To show grace to Jesus' followers when they fall short is a choice to love. As we receive grace from them in our failures and short comings, we learn what love looks and feels like. As we follow Jesus and his disciples through the Gospel accounts, we encounter his love for them. The more we pay attention to him, the more aware we become that we are to love like him as we hear his command that his disciples love one another (John 13:34-35). His love becomes our love when we really listen to him and put what he says into practice by actually loving others. We make a conscious choice to love those who let us down or hurt us. We experience love in choosing to help those in need and forgiving those whose sin harms us. In Christ we find that being available and vulnerable in the midst of a community of believers demonstrates love of neighbor. In the context of a faith community we experience God's redeeming love through our neighbors. His disciples are the neighbors we serve, not fully realizing that we are serving Christ (Matthew 25:35-40). In Christ, as part of a community of disciples, we experience the life transformation that enables us to crucify our love of self and live in the love of Christ so that we can truly love our neighbors.
As a result of the life transformation initiated through the gospel of God and brought about by the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, our love moves towards Christian maturity. Our self-centered love is being replaced with godly love. We are grasping the big picture of God as our Father and Creator, and seeking to understand what it means to be created in His image (Genesis 1:26-27). We come face to face with the realities of our fallen world and of people being lost in darkness (Psalm 82:5; John 12:46). We hear Jesus' commission to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20). All this makes its way into our heart and leads us to repent (Romans 2:4; I Corinthians 7:10;). We realize that we have not yet truly loved our neighbors. We have not served their interests, or more importantly, Christ's interests in them, because we have been more concerned about we get or what it costs us. But now we know that we have been bought with a price, the blood of Christ. In Christ we encounter the love that we want to flow out through us and into others. The Holy Spirit is bearing in us the fruit of love (Galatians 5:22) in ways we had not previously known or understood. The result is that we begin to see everyone we encounter as a neighbor. We do not see people as we used to see them (II Corinthians 5:16; II Peter 3:9). We do not focus on what we might gain, but on their coming to know Christ Jesus and what that could mean for them. We are loving like Jesus with a love that is manifest in our compassion for the hurting and extending grace and truth to those who need grace and truth. Neighbors are no longer limited to our neighborhood, community, nation, church, or even to those who are Jesus' disciples. We love those who walk with Christ as well as those who are far from him and do not know him. Neighbors are found every place we go since they are in line and in traffic with us, including the ones that cut in front of us. They are the people we learn about in the news, including the ones in other nations and on other continents. These are the neighbors whom we love. Love flows from us in face to face settings. Love flows through our prayers for individuals and groups, some whom we may never meet. In every situation we consider what the most loving thing to do for another would be and do it. Sometimes love flows easily; other times it is the choice we make in the face of risk and rejection (John 15:13). As we mature we notice the change in our heart and are the most amazed of all. As much as it is up to us, we choose to be at peace with others. Even if others reject us, our staying focused on Christ enables us to continue loving everyone we encounter. We realize that all people everywhere are our neighbors. We also understand that even those yet to be born who will someday be here, are our neighbors. It is no longer about how we might benefit or what it costs us to love others because it is not about us at all. We love like Christ, who loved us and gave himself up for us (Ephesians 5:2). Simply put, we have experienced the love of Christ and know that love covers a multitude of sins (I Peter 4:8). So we love our neighbors as ourselves with the same love we know in and through Christ.
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