What does it mean to love your neighbor? As Christians, our lives are to be marked by love as a defining characteristic of who we are. In John 13:34-35 Jesus tells his disciples that people will know they are his followers by their love for one another. Just before this in the same chapter, Jesus washes the feet of the disciples, Jesus tells them that if he as the master is willing to lower himself to the place of a servant then so are they, from the teaching of Jesus love is action, not warm feelings in our insides.
What does this mean practically? It is easy to say. Most of us, Christian or not, recognize the saying “Do unto others as you would do to yourself”, believe it or not ‘the golden rule’ we all grew up hearing is actually from the Bible and is from Jesus.
Matthew 22:37-40 (NIV)
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (emphasis added)
It is easy to say, but what does it look like in practice? Lucky for us, someone asked Jesus a question and in his answer he answered our question, ‘What does it look like to love our neighbor?’
Luke 10:25-37 (NIV)
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘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, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
This parable and Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5:43-48 show us the radical nature of Christian love versus what we may understand as love in a purely human understanding of the word. If it is simply being nice and caring about those with whom we agree, like, and are familiar, the call to love our enemies is a hard phrase to understand. Jesus calls us to recognize the worth and dignity that every human possesses, as they are created in the image of God. Again, we are called to be servants and to love others, this demands action not feeling.
The Samaritan in the parable of Jesus took action. He cared for the wounded Jewish man, tended to his wounds, took him to a place to recover, and paid for those expenses. This was not a negligible amount of money that he gave. We are not told if he backtracked on his trip to take this man to a place to recover, but he did take time out of his plans and his life to care for him. Jesus concludes his answer to the expert in the law with “Go and do likewise.”
What does this look like today?
We need to understand that we cannot help everyone, and we cannot as individuals change the world, but we can impact one person’s life. Here in Longmont, we have many who are homeless, many are struggling to make ends meet, and there are many who are lonely and hurting. Additionally, there are many in the greater area surrounding our town, who have come here to the U.S. in a variety of ways that are unable to work and are struggling. We have ample opportunities to practice the love that Jesus talked about. We can and should pray for all of these people. However, we should also be acting with compassion, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the hurting, and visiting the lonely.
In the larger situations of injustice in the world we should use our voice to speak for the marginalized. We should call out heinous war crimes, targeting civilians, purposefully starving civilians, and restricting humanitarian aid. The Church of Jesus will be known for their love for others. If we are not exemplifying this then we should take a hard look inside of ourselves and our hearts. We should throw ourselves at the feet of the cross and beg for our hearts of stone to be softened and broken. We should beg to see people as Jesus does, to see the pain and hurt around us, and for the strength to do the uncomfortable thing and take action. Dear brothers and sisters, this is kingdom work that we are called to be doing.