Who Is My Neighbor?

Luke 10:25-29 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?”

Our Small Group Bible Study looked at the parable of the Good Samaritan to understand the godly meaning of loving God and loving our neighbor. The Lord Jesus knew the heart of the Law-testing lawyer and seized the opportunity to turn the test around and create a learning experience for the tester … and us.

 

The nation of Israel was God’s “chosen people” and in their eyes people in the world were either a Jew or a Gentile. In the lawyer’s mind a God-loving, God-fearing, obedient Israelite was his neighbor, but it wasn’t crystal clear. The Greek here for “neighbor” is “plēsion”,any other person, and where two are concerned, the other (thy fellow man, thy neighbor), according to the Jews, any member of the Hebrew nation and commonwealth. But the word “nigh” means “near in time and space”; and “bor” means “dweller”, so “a neighbor is a person who lives near another”. 

 

Yet, “neighborhood” is different than “brotherhood”. You hear it said that there is a “universal brotherhood of mankind’, but that is not correct terminology. Brotherhood is an association of the same kind, making the same profession of faith, for the same purpose; brethren – used exclusively in solemn and scriptural language. Christians are born-again believers, children of God and bothers and sisters in Christ from the heart. The term that people are really trying to communicate is a “universal neighborhood of mankind”. The lawyer was thinking in terms of brotherhood as being a neighbor. Though both applicable in their own right, loving your brethren is different than loving your neighbor as yourself. Jesus clarified the difference with a parable.

 

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.”

 

According to Christ, our neighbor is any other person irrespective of nation or religion with whom we live or whom we chance to meet; one of the human race; any one that needs our help, or to whom we have an opportunity of doing good. We are to have compassion in our heart and reverence for our fellow man in need or hurting. Love, joy, peace, mercy and grace are to be towards our neighbor, whether next door, in the neighboring town or on the other side of the earth, because they are in our neighborhood and God made them. They are your neighbor.

 

In Christ, Brian