Love Your Neighbor?
It’s funny how life works sometimes. I may be alone in this, but it seems that my spiritual growth follows an interesting an unpredictable pattern. I cruise along for a period of time growing and learning slowly but surely, then suddenly I have what can only be called an ‘epiphany’, and it seems that I make a leap forward in my understanding. Things that were murky become clear, and I’m suddenly aware of how much farther I have yet to go!
Lately, it has become abundantly clear that there is a disconnect between what I SAY about ‘loving my neighbor’ and what I DO about it. As I look around at other Christians, it seems that by and large, I’m not alone in this.
Simultaneous to this point of clarity, I’m also feeling more and more that we are turning into the scribes and Pharisees of the NT. Specifically, I think I read some of the radical, life changing ideas of Jesus so often that they have lost their edge! this is not to say, ‘Stop reading your Bible!’ It’s more to say that we should revisit these passages with renewed vigor and perspective.
This has been bothering me so much lately, that I’ve preached about it in the last couple of weeks. And again, I’m struck by how crazy and beautiful the work of the Holy Spirit is. As I’m having these thoughts, working on changing, and talking to others about this, someone sends me an excellent article that deals with exactly this concept. The writer is discussing this exact ‘disconnect’ in American culture. That we CLAIM to be the most Christian nation in the world, yet we rank last or near the bottom in every major statistic that has to do with Christian ideals. We have one of the highest poverty rates, we are the least self-controlled, and we have one of the highest divorce rates of any developed nation.
Here is an excellent quote from this essay:
‘Love your neighbor as yourself: although its rhetorical power has been dimmed by repetition, that is a radical notion, perhaps the most radical notion possible. Especially since Jesus, in all his teachings, made it very clear who the neighbor you were supposed to love was: the poor person, the sick person, the naked person, the hungry person. The last shall be made first; turn the other cheek; a rich person aiming for heaven is like a camel trying to walk through the eye of a needle. On and on and on; a call for nothing less than a radical, voluntary, and effective reordering of power relationships, based on the principle of love….American churches, by and large, have done a pretty good job of loving the neighbor in the next pew.’
~Bill McKibben
I mean, I could have wrote that, if only I was a bit smarter! This statement exactly describes my thoughts as I’ve been reading through the gospels the last few weeks!
More on my struggles with this and other issues in future posts!
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You are not alone is this. I love to talk about “Love” and theorize about it but when it comes time to walk the walk I find excuses. Love thy neighbor as yourself is an extremely high standard when you consider how much we love ourselves. In America, we have it so easy. For what we pay for a cup of coffee each day, fresh water could be provided to village in Africa yet we hold that money like it is the last dollar we will ever see.
Thanks for the reminder of where our focus should be.
good thoughts. I’ve had some of the same thoughts myself. I’ve heard some of these teachings for so long that I’ve become deaf to their message and need to re-learn what it is that Christ was teaching.
regarding the question that was posed to Jesus that prompted the parable of the good samaritan… when asked ‘who is my neighbor?’ did you notice that Jesus does not answer this question? The expert in the law was saying, ok, if I have to love my neighbor in order for me to inherit eternal life, lets define neighbor. I want to put some parameters around this concept so I know exactly who I’m responsible for loving.
Jesus doesn’t answer that question. In effect Jesus says to him ‘You’re asking the wrong question. Its not who am I responsible for loving?, but instead how can I show love to my fellow man?’ When its all said and done, the final answer from Jesus was an excellent example of what it means to be a neighbor. But it wasn’t given in the context of ‘these are the kind of people you should show love to’. He said, go and do this and you will show yourself a neighbor to others.
I don’t know if links will work in the comments section, but Bob Waldron did a good lesson on Matthew 12:7 about this topic. Here’s the audio: http://209.51.142.198/Audio/Sermon_041507_am_Bob_Waldron_I_Desire_Mercy_and_Not_Sacrifice.mp3
It’s one thing to “know” the law. It’s another to consider it in with mercy and love in your heart.