Walking with the Wise #16: Love Your Neighbor

“Do not say to your neighbor, ‘Go, and come again,
tomorrow I will give it’—when you have it with you.
Do not plan evil against your neighbor,
who dwells trustingly beside you.
Do not contend with a man for no reason,
when he has done you no harm.” 

—Proverbs 3:28-29

Love your neighbor. The first and greatest commandment is to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second is like it, to love our neighbor as ourselves. When a lawyer asked who our neighbor is, Jesus replied with the story of the Good Samaritan as found in Luke 10:25-37. The story, if you remember, was nothing short of astonishing. It involved a Jewish man who had been robbed, beaten up, and left for dead on the side of a road. Three men came by one by one. The first was a priest, but rather than stop and help, he passed on by. The second was a Levite (who was from the tribe of Levi, the priestly tribe), and he passed by just like the first. It was the third man, a Samaritan, who stopped. He not only stopped, but cleaned up the man’s wounds, took him to an inn, and then paid for his stay along with whatever else he needed while he was healing.

It was an incredible story and one that was weighted with racial and religious tension. For Jews, Samaritans were half-breeds and religious heretics. It was unthinkable to them that a Samaritan would be the one to help after their leaders—a priest and a Levite would pass him by. When Jesus asked who proved to be a neighbor to the man, the lawyer couldn’t even say it was a Samaritan. Instead, he said, “The one who showed him mercy”—Luke 10:37. It is not what we say, or what our background is that shows who we are, but it is what we do. The Samaritan showed mercy, while the others did not. His actions proved louder than their words.

Walking with the wise means learning about what it means to live wisely or skillfully—and that means loving one’s neighbor. The question is, how does that play out? In today’s proverb, it means helping someone who is in need when it is in our power to do so. We shouldn’t make them wait for something tomorrow that we can do today. Nor should we try to do evil to a person who lives by us. We shouldn’t try to pick a fight or seek his harm when he has done us no wrong. No. We are to love him, to care for him, and to seek his good. And this means, even if he is an enemy. The Bible says that we are to love our enemies and to do good to them,

“If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat,

and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, 

for you will heap burning coals on his head,
and the LORD will reward you.” 

—Proverbs 25:21-22.

Are you loving your neighbor? Or are you seeking someone else’s harm? Are you loving just with your words? Or are you loving with your actions? Don’t think you can say one thing and do another—God knows the heart and He can’t be fooled. Love your neighbor even though you may not feel like it, and you are busy. Love your neighbor even though they might be different from you and possibly stand for that which is bitterly opposite to your beliefs. And in doing so, you may win them to Jesus. Let them see Jesus in you and be a light to them. Amen.