The Value of Relationships
31. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength: this is the first commandment.
32. And the second is like (it), namely this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.
Mark 12:30-31
You Cannot Pick Your Neighborhood
The culture of individualism has caused many in the Christian community to wrongly define their relationship with God as vertical only. Yet, the message Jesus taught is that we also must have a favorable relationship with those around us. This presents a challenge especially when we consider the teaching of the Holy Scriptures. Jesus elevated our relationship with our neighbor on the same level as loving God. Most believers boast about their love for God, but rarely do they rave over their love for their neighbor.
Jesus used the Levitical Law (Leviticus 19:18) to drive home several points that modern day Christianity seems to ignore. Loving your neighbor is a commandment of God that was not set aside with Jesus dying on the Cross. As a matter of fact, Jesus taught as you love God, you will also love your neighbor in the same manner. The same love you express in worshipping and praising God, that love is to be poured out to your neighbor. Of course, we don’t worship our neighbors, but we are to maintain a loving relationship with them. This second command, Jesus taught, namely this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. Did you hear that? There are no greater commands than these two. The two commands are so closely linked that you cannot perform one without performing the other.
This brings us to the second point about loving your neighbor. If you do not love your neighbor, you cannot say that you are loving God. Prejudiced people cannot claim to love God and at the same time hate certain races of people. That’s because Jesus expanded the definition of neighborhood to include anyone who crosses your path and anyone you may have dealings with. That is a broad neighborhood. So, my neighbor could live anywhere and be anyone. So, with my neighbor being broadly defined as anyone who lives anywhere, I cannot truthfully say that I love God unless I love my neighbor. Also, simply confessing that I don’t hate anyone does not satisfy the application of the text. I must actively engage in loving my neighbor in the same way as I engage in loving God. I must put my mind, body, soul, and strength into loving my neighbor who may be anybody that may be living anywhere. Wow! That is a tall order or should I say command.
Yet, there is a third lesson that Jesus teaches in the command to love your neighbor as yourself. Loving your neighbor begins with valuing your neighbor so personally as to see yourself being loved. If the command read that you should love your neighbor and gave no value basis, the command would be open to our interpretation. If the command was simply to have a loving attitude, then the love would be left to simply an emotional sentiment of good will. But that’s not what Jesus said and certainly not what he meant. If you value yourself, you are to use the same measure to express love to your neighbor.
By using the Parable of the “Good Samaritan,” Jesus not only condemned the priest and the Levite for not showing compassion for the injured man, but also condemned their claims to love God. They had not performed the duties that God commanded, therefore, they failed to live according to the very Law that they claimed to uphold. Those living in our day would likewise be condemned if they claim to love God and yet walk past their neighbor and ignore their need.
Value Your Relationship with God and Your Neighbor
Stop saying you love Jesus and start showing me by the love you show to your neighbor. That love for Jesus must be expressed in some way by loving your neighbor. Here are a few quotes I ran across about valuing relationships and valuing people.
Here is one by someone called “asayako©.” Value the people who sacrifice their something for you … because maybe that something was their everything. Here is another quote that grabbed my attention. The same people who can deny others everything are famous for refusing themselves nothing. Lastly, this one provoked a lot of thought. Walter Winchell is quoted as saying, A real friend is someone who walks in when the rest of the world walks out. I find that this world is filled with opportunities for each of us to be a good neighbor if we would only open our heart to the people we meet. Make no mistake about it, your heart will get broken plenty of times. But like Jesus, you will be sacrificing for the cause of “loving others.”
With that in mind, let’s take a fresh look at the Parable of the Good Samaritan and find four basic things that are needed to love your neighbor as yourself. These are also the four basic things needed to value relationships. As you recall, there was an injured man who fell among thieves on the Jericho Road. This introduces the first basic need to Respect Thy Neighbor. The thieves disrespected or devalued the man by robbing him and injuring him for their own gain. This second and third counts of disrespect was committed by the priest and later by the Levite who came that way. See Luke 10:30-37. While the priest and Levite were not responsible for his physical injuries, they were responsible for his emotional and even spiritual wounds of being abandoned by people who were supposed to show kindness. Then along came the Samaritan who when he saw the man, he had compassion on him and went to him. Unlike the others, the Samaritan gave to the man his respect. You might say that respect will often be the catalyst for other good things.
What else happened? The Samaritan saw something of the person’s condition and made a conscious decision to help. The second basic thing needed to value relationships is to Recognize Thy Neighbor’s Need. We cannot use the excuse that it is none of our business when God reveals a situation to us. True, certain situations may present such a problem that is beyond our capacity, but it is never beyond our recognition. If you cannot help, you can always call for help on behalf of someone. In the Parable of the Sheep and Goats in Matt. 25:37-40, the question was asked of the Lord, When did we see you hungry, thirsty, homeless, naked, sick, or in prison? The Lord answered, In as much as you have done it to the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me. That act of recognizing someone’s need presents an opportunity to serve Christ by serving others.
The parable of the Good Samaritan follows with several other actions. Unlike the priest and the Levite, the Samaritan did not leave the injured person on the roadside and exposed to further danger; he acted. Yes, respecting the injured person was commendable. Yes, recognizing the person’s need was a blessing. But if it ends there, the focus of loving your neighbor as yourself is not complete. The Samaritan provides an example of how to Respond to the Challenge to Care. By showing us the needs in our world, God Almighty is challenging us to care. The way we accept the challenge is through the actions we take to show that we care. The greatest need of the injured man was to be cared for and to be with someone. While we paid attention to the injuries of the man who fell among thieves, we ignored probably the man’s greatest need. He was lonely and needed someone to be a friend. Have you ever thought that there are a lot of lonely people in this world who just need someone to talk to. Their in jails. They are in nursing homes and hospitals. You meet them on the street. You even work with them. This Western culture suffers from perhaps the most deadly social and emotional disease: it is called isolation.
To overcome that, you simply need to run the risk of becoming someone’s friend. O yes, it is going to take time. Which brings us back to the way we value people. There is a true expression that says, show me the way you spend your time, and I will show you what you truly value. If we really care about what happens to people, we will care enough to act.
There is one other basic thing that we need to give to others if we truly value relationships. The Samaritan did something that each of us have the capacity to perform; we can Redeem the Time with Thy Neighbor. The Samaritan gave his time. Out of all the things he could have been doing, he made an investment in the injured man’s life by loading him on his beast, bringing him to an inn, and providing for his care. That is probably where many well intentioned Christians would draw the line and say, “I don’t know if I would go that far?” Think of it this way, you will spend your time doing something for yourself so why not love your neighbor as you love yourself.
At this point, I think Jesus used the Samaritan to show what it is like to love and care for your neighbor in great detail as if you were doing for yourself. If I was injured on the Jericho Road, I would want to bandage my wounds. I certainly would want to get myself to safety. I would want to care for myself until I was fully recovered. If I would do it for me, the Bible declares that I should willfully do it for my neighbor.
The reference to redeeming the time means also to pay the ransom. When you think about loving others as yourself, just think about how Jesus paid the ransom for you. He gave without limitation. He loved beyond measure. Jesus gave until He had given His last drop of blood. Let that serve as a motivation to you just in case you are having reservations about loving others as yourself. You are not just saved, you were redeemed. Go and do likewise. Be a good neighbor.