Who is My Neighbor?
The last week has been wild, to say the least.
We have seen grown men name-calling and arguing on social media platforms.
We have nations at war.
We have protests, riots, and the state and federal governments stepping in.
Things are uncertain for some, terrifying for some, frustrating for others, and polarizing for many.
This week, the California Highway Patrol has been parking outside my church building to do “staging” prior to driving downtown to help with traffic control in an area mixed with protests, violence, and forceful detainments of immigrants by ICE.
Yesterday, I saw them and immediately felt a nudge to go offer water bottles. As I walked through groups of officers, I saw fear, concern, and a general exhaustion. Some were receptive, some were skeptical, some were thankful, and others were just ready to be off work.
In writing this, I recognize some people can read and think to themselves, “Cam supports this side of the conversation on the protests (or insert your political topic here…).” But what I would like to offer and propose to you is that if the people who were outside our church building were immigrants, I would have done the same thing.
Why?
Because Jesus makes it very clear that our calling as followers of Christ is profoundly simple: to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. When He takes time to define this concept of neighbor in the Scriptures, one of the most important parables He tells is found in Luke 10: the parable of the good Samaritan. He is talking to an expert in the law and calls him to love God and love his neighbor. The law expert then tries to justify himself and asks, “Who is my neighbor?” This is when Jesus tells this story of a man who is traveling and is attacked, left for dead. Religious leaders see him and leave him there, crossing to the other side of the road to preserve their own righteousness. But a Samaritan (a relative and neighbor who was divided from Jews in Jerusalem) saw this man, nursed him to health, took him to an inn, and paid for his expenses. In short, he saved his life. Jesus then defines a neighbor as the one who took mercy on the man left for dead and called the lawyer to go and do likewise.
Our society today has limited love for the neighbor to certain categories:
those who look like me,
speak like me,
vote like me,
believe what I believe,
are from where I’m from, and
will benefit my life, desires, and wants.
The difficulty is that when we do this, we end up identifying people based on what they offer to us and how we can benefit from their relationship. If this is good for us, then we keep them close and speak well of them. If this does not benefit us, we push them away, ostracize them, and belittle them with generalized stereotypes.
The simple truth is that right now, people are using blanket statements to define entire groups of people. This is called judgment. And we cannot judge and love at the same time. Greg Boyd said it this way, “You can’t love and judge at the same time. It’s impossible to ascribe unsurpassible worth to others when you’re using others to ascribe worth to yourself.”
Sadly, our world is lost in allowing the disagreements of our time to become reasons to value our neighbors less. But Scripturally, the call to love our neighbor isn’t based on whether we agree or disagree, it’s based on Jesus’ reach to all people. It’s based on the Scriptural truth that all people are made in God’s image and worthy of dignity, love, and respect (Gen. 1). It’s based on the love that Jesus is and calls us to extend to others (1 Jn 3-4). It’s based on not allowing our opinions to become stumbling blocks to the love of God (1 Cor. 8-10; Rom. 14).
Skye Jethani explains it this way: “We may disagree with our neighbors, and we may discern another person or group to be wrong, but when discernment leads us to value our neighbor less, that is when we cross from discernment to judgment, condemnation, and ungodly exclusion. It has become acceptable, even among some Christians, to condemn those who hold different religious, cultural, and political beliefs. We are quick to call them enemies and reluctant to love them as neighbors.”
Yet, when Jesus defines love for the neighbor, He breaks down the social barriers we construct to call us to recognize every person is a neighbor and our call is to love them as Christ loves them (Jn. 13). When Jesus defines who our neighbors are, He includes all people. When Jesus categorizes those whom we are called to love, He includes not only friends, but enemies (Mt. 6).
As followers of Jesus in our current cultural climate, we must return to the baseline of Christianity: loving God and loving our neighbor.
So, who is my neighbor? Not only the ones who look, speak, vote, believe, or live like me, but ALL people. This includes those who are being generalized and stereotyped right now. This includes those that are featured in the news headlines. This includes those whom you cannot stand.
Why?
Because this is what love looks like. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another (1 John 4:10-11).”
Last time I checked, this love was given:
for the world (John 3:16),
to save and not condemn (John 3:17),
while we were still sinners (Rms. 5:8), and
regardless of what one's identity or status was (Jn. 4).
And if we miss these truths, we miss THE truth of love.
If we have to ask God if we can love our neighbor because they are an immigrant, a police officer, affiliated with a certain political party, identifying with a specific gender or sexuality, or are not perfect according to our sub-cultures, we have missed the point of love.
If we allow our “love of neighbor” to be limited to certain groups of people and simultaneously cause harm to other groups of people, we have missed the point of love.
If we act with violence and vengeance rather than Scriptural justice and mercy, we miss the point of loving our neighbors.
If we allow anger to be our first response rather than a listening ear, we miss the point of love for all.
If we allow politics to be the mask for our biases and hatred of others, we have missed the point of the love of neighbor.
If we only pray for one group rather than all, we have missed the point of love altogether.
Instead, we must stop trying to justify ourselves by questioning who our neighbors are and come back to our first love so that we can extend that love to all others as our neighbors.
We must extend a helping hand to those in need (Mt. 25:31-46).
We must offer to those from whom we won’t get anything back (Lk. 6:27-36).
We must “go and do likewise” in giving mercy to all (Lk. 10:37).
We must act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God (Mic. 6:8).
We must resist violence, vengeance, and judgment by doing good (Rom. 12).
We must listen first (Jms. 1:19-20).
We must choose postures of prayer for all (1 Tim. 2), peace with all (Rom. 12:18), respect for all (1 Pet. 2:17), humility (Phil. 2:1-11), and unity (Eph. 4).
We must stay committed to living out the teachings and commandments of Jesus (Mt. 28:18-20) more than any other preferences, teachings, voices, and/or opinions of our time.
Jesus’ call was for us to recognize that our neighbor is the one with whom we share this world. Our neighbor might carry any number of titles, but the one that matters most is “image-bearer”. And you and I are called to extend extravagant love to them, no matter what other titles there may be.
So, what do we do right now?
Love your neighbor. Pray for your neighbor. Serve your neighbor. Contribute to organizations making a difference for your neighbors in need. Offer a helping hand.
And even if people will categorize, politicize, and polarize you based on these actions, keep prioritizing the main thing: love God and love your neighbor. Because when we stay committed to the ways of God, the oppressed and overlooked will be lifted up, the broken will be healed, the divided will be united, the ostracized will be included, and the world will see the good and glorify God (1 Pet. 2:12).
May we be a people who “go and do likewise” in extending mercy to our neighbors, the way Jesus called us. As Tim Keller once wrote, “Not everyone is your brother or sister in the faith, but everyone is your neighbor, and you must love your neighbor.” Amen.
