Like a Good Neighbor
From Sunday Morning
by Josh Linton on July 24, 2016
And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? (Luke 10:25–29, KJV).
If there’s one word that describes society today, it’s busy. We all have busy schedules, busy lives, and we don’t have time for anyone else but us most of the time. We want to serve in God’s kingdom, but we’d rather participate in something with a “cutoff date” or throw a few dollars in the offering plate because anything else would take away our time.
We’re running to and from our homes, furiously answering calls, texts, and emails, and we don’t even take the time to look up to see who we’re passing in the fast lane. We have to ask ourselves a real question today: Do we know our neighbors? Are we loving them?
A lawyer in our setting of Scripture (Luke 10:25–29) asked Jesus what he needed to do to inherit eternal life. He was a theologian of the Scriptures, and thought he was abiding by the laws written therein. He loved the Lord with his all in all, but wasn’t sure if he met the second, and greatest commandment. He felt like he could justify any failure in this area based on a technicality—if it didn’t know his neighbor, how could he love them?
Jesus told the lawyer the story about the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30–37). When everyone else passed by an injured man in the road, the Good Samaritan stopped to help the man, took care of him, and loved him. The Good Samaritan saw this helpless man as his neighbor—someone to help, someone whom he could love, someone he could have compassion on (Luke 10:33). And, if we’re going to love everyone like our neighbor (as we should), we need to have compassion on them. So, what is compassion?
If we are going to have compassion on our neighbors, we need to look for people who have a need to help. We shouldn’t look at others based on what they can do for us, but what we can do for them. We encounter people daily who have a myriad of issues, and we think it’s just another “situation” we can’t do anything about. But, we cannot be too busy to have compassion—to help others in the midst of their trials in any capacity. We can’t be so focused on what we think we’re doing for the Lord’s kingdom—we need to pay attention to what is right in front of us!
When we truly love our neighbors as ourselves, we will feel something. The word compassion is from the Greek word splagchnizomai, which means from the internal bowels, or from the gut. God wants us to have compassion far beyond the notion of our brain—what makes “logical” sense to us. We should feel a burden; be moved by something deeper than ourselves; have an overwhelming desire and need to help other people. We need to open ourselves up and allow compassion to flow from us to another person—our neighbors.
When the love of God is within us, it will drive us to take action. Whether we pray, fast, or physically help our neighbor, we are doing something for God’s kingdom and His children. What we can do and/or say in someone’s life can influence them to take action to help someone else—to love their neighbors. We can cause the Word of God to be activated in someone’s life.
If we are going to love our neighbors as ourselves, and love them as God loves them, it will cost us something. The Good Samaritan used his own oil and wine to care for the injured man (Luke 10:34) and also paid for his current and future care (Luke 10:35). He used his stuff, his money, and his time. We need to realize today that what we have in this life was placed in our hands by God. He wants us to use what He’s blessed us with to help others. Our purpose in this life is to help and serve others—to find our neighbors and love them.
Today, we need to ask ourselves: What kind of neighbors are we? Are we laying down our lives, our time, our finances, and everything we are to help our brethren and sistren inside and outside of the church (I John 3:16–18)? Let’s be a good neighbor today and love our neighbors in deed and in truth.
