Love Your Neighbor
35. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked Him a question, tempting Him, and saying,
36. “Master, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
37. Jesus said to him, “You shall 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 great commandment.”
39. “And the second is like unto it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
40. “On these two commandments hang all the Law and the prophets.”
Matthew 22:35-40
Why Should I Love My Neighbor?
What prompted the lawyer (expert in the Torah or Law of Moses) to ask Jesus the question what was the great commandment? Clearly, he was tempting Jesus to see if our Lord would give a wrong answer. Was he testing the depth of Jesus knowledge and perhaps wanted to see if Jesus would come up with something contrary to the Law of Moses? As it stands, Jesus gave him God’s answer regarding the great command and went further to share the second command to ‘love your neighbor.’ Jesus also shared to what extent a person should love his neighbor by loving “your neighbor as yourself.”
Many have stressed the priority of loving God but then minimize the significance of loving your neighbor. Jesus made it clear that this second command was “like the first” when it came to the priority of love. In the same manner that we would give priority to loving God, we should give priority to loving our neighbor as you would love yourself.
The first thing we should understand is that “love” must act. Love that does not take action is not love. Loving your neighbor means taking some action or expression. Here, Jesus tells us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves to show the extent of our love. How much do we love ourselves? We care for our bodies and do things to demonstrate that we not only appreciate but indeed love ourselves. To give you an example of how much people love themselves, we turn to a 2017 article written by Macaela McKenzie titled, ‘This is how much you will spend on beauty products in your lifetime’ published in the Allure newsletter. On the average, women will spend nearly $225,000 over their lifetime on beauty products (not necessities). That’s about $4,000 per year. Men will spend over $3,100 per year or $175,000 over their lifetime on beauty products. (This is for things like perfumes and facial products, not toiletries). That data gives an idea how much people will spend to “love” themselves. The commandment to love your neighbor as yourself certainly expresses a lot of love.
The second thing to consider is the purpose of that love. Jesus said, the second command is like the first. Love for God should be in response to God’s love and to love God with all our heart, mind, and soul. God cannot be manipulated with fake love and no one should ever try it. You don’t have to manipulate God because God loved you before you even existed. The only thing we should and can do is respond to that love. Now, when it comes to loving our neighbor, we are to love for the same purpose for which we love God. Give love freely without pretense and without manipulation. This is where we run into the issues of loving your neighbor. Let’s talk about it.
Who is my neighbor?
When it comes to loving God, the only choice we have is whether to love God or not; when it comes to loving our neighbor, we suppose we have our options. We try to pick our neighbors. We try to pick the times that we love our neighbor. We even think we can choose how to love our neighbor. These are assumptions, and not the truth.
Jesus said that the second commandment was like the first. He went further to explain that loving your neighbor as yourself would be weighed on the same scale as loving God. “On these two commandments hang all the Law and the prophets.” Every commandment and every Word by the prophets are summed up in the two commands to love God and love your neighbor. The only way to fulfill the Law is through genuine love for God and love for your neighbor. Let’s break it down.
You cannot choose your neighbors. Jesus said, “you have heard that you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy … but I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you … that you may be children of your Father which is in Heaven.” Matthew 5:43-45. Jesus expanded the neighborhood to include not only people we don’t like but also our enemies. That neighborhood includes people who are not like me as well as people I might not like period. As much as we try to avoid admitting it, all of us are prejudiced. We try to justify the prejudice on past events or potential threats for the future, but prejudice is simply saying, I don’t want certain people in my neighborhood. Jesus is saying, “if you are going to follow Me, I will take you into neighborhoods that you will not like and among people you may not like.” Here is the point, how are we going to take the Gospel into all the world if we are only taking it to people we like? When it comes to neighbors, you must be color blind, culture blind, and creed blind. You must love the Muslim, the atheist, the Hindu, and the Buddhist. I did not say agree with them, I said “love them.” First, don’t feel threatened by strange neighbors; what you believe is far more powerful than what they believe if they are unsaved. Second, they need what you have and if you offer them your Gospel, how will they know? Lastly, Jesus tied our loving our neighbor with a Heavenly reward. He asked, “if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?” There is a reward for expanding the neighborhood.
You cannot choose how to love your neighbor. That choice is determined by your neighbor’s need. One of the parables Jesus told was of a man who fell among thieves while traveling the Jericho Road. (Luke 10:30-37). The question is not only who is my neighbor, but also how can I help my neighbor? According to Scripture, the traveler from Jerusalem to Jericho got robbed and assaulted to the point of almost losing his life. Three people passed that way after the attack and noticed the man. One was a priest who saw the injured man but passed by on the other side and kept on his way. The next person was a Levite who saw the man, ‘looked on him’ and passed by on the other side. The last person who passed by was a Samaritan (someone the Jews abhorred). He saw the man, came where he was, and had compassion on him. Wait! Stop! The despised Samaritan had compassion (love in action) on the man. He went to him, bound up his wounds … took the man to an inn, paid the bill, left money with the innkeeper to take care of the man, and promised to come back and check on him. Jesus then asked the one who asked the question, “Now, which of these three do you think, was neighbor to the one who fell among the thieves?” And he said, “he that showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said, “go and you do likewise.” If you are going to be a good neighbor, you must respond to the needs of those that God allows to cross your path. You can’t pick the neighborhood, God does.
Lastly, you cannot choose when to love your neighbor. I know what you’re thinking, “I just won’t travel those Jericho Roads.” The fact is, you don’t know where God might send you on a mercy mission. Jericho might not always be that side of town or that street or even that county. Jericho might be the time of day or the situation at hand that God allows you to be in the right place at the right time. In that case, you didn’t choose the neighborhood, it was the circumstance that chose you. The Apostle James took up the neighbor issue in his letter, James 2:8, 15-17. If you fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well … If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say to them ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled; without giving them those things that are needed for the body; what does it profit … even so faith, if it does not have works, is dead, being alone. You cannot talk about loving your neighbor, you must act. You must be that good neighbor who notices when another neighbor needs help. If there are no needs in your neighborhood, maybe you should expand your outreach. If you don’t have any hungry folk in your neighborhood, maybe you should check out the folk on the next street or in the next town.
Some ask, why did Jesus come to this sin cursed world? One thing He did was to expand His Father’s neighborhood to include the down and out, the lost, the drug addict, the prostitute, and the thief. Jesus was, “the Good Neighbor.” He left His home in Glory. He was the Good Neighbor. When you and I needed help, like a Good Neighbor, Jesus was there. When we were weak, Jesus was the Good Neighbor and gave us His strength. When we needed healing, Jesus was the Good Neighbor who stopped by and bound up our feeble bodies. Jesus is the Good Neighbor who went to Calvary, to save a wretch like you and me. That’s not just Love, that’s a Good Neighbor. The Good Neighbor came to our neighborhood so we could be welcomed into His.