I Am Your Neighbor

In Matthew 22, an expert in the law is trying to trick Jesus, so he asks him which is the greatest commandment in the Law.

Jesus replies, “Love the Lord your GOD with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

In Matthew 19, a man approaches Jesus to ask him what he has to do to get eternal life.  Jesus tells him that he has to obey the commandments, “Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”

The young man says that he has done all these things, but he wants to know what he is lacking.

Jesus then tells him that if he wants to be complete, he has to sell his stuff and give to the poor and then follow Him.

The man then goes away sad.

Both of these stories remind me of the importance of loving my neighbor, but I feel as if I need to be reminded from time to time what that looks like.  Who are my neighbors?

When Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan, he says that my neighbor is not necessarily the person I think it would or should be.  The neighbor in the story is the one that has mercy on the man who is beaten and left for dead.  The man who was robbed knows his neighbor as the one that cared for him when no one else did.  His neighbor is the one that loves him.  His neighbor is the one that is looked down on by the rest of society.

I am good at loving some of my neighbors.  I love my family.  I love my friends.  I love those that are most like me.  I say that I love everyone, but my actions do not always reflect that.

I love the community that I live in, but I invest most of my time with people that are similar to me.  I spend little time with people in my city that live under the bridges or struggle to find food. 

"we sometimes scream as soft as we can (do not wake the neighbors.) i will love you if you will listen."

This is a quote from the Murfreesboro Post found in black permanent marker under a bridge in Murfreesboro, TN. 

The author is presumably homeless.

The author is my neighbor.

Accountable vs. Judgmental

According to studies done regarding negative perceptions that people outside the church have about Christianity, the top three complaints are that Christians are Antihomosexual, Hypocritical, and Judgmental. I get it. I understand why people can think that Christians are judgmental. I am not going to argue that point. I am going to complain about something else, though.

If you are a Christian you cannot just assume another Christian is being “judgmental” when they call you out on sin. It is not being judgmental. It is called accountability. Many times the reason people feel as if they are being judged in this circumstance, it is because they know they are missing the mark.

As Christians, we are held to a high standard of living, and we fall short a lot. We all do. Thank GOD that He is full of grace and mercy. Thank GOD that I can move on with life knowing that I am forgiven and my shortcomings are purified through the sacrifice on the cross. At the same time, we need to be able to approach each other in a loving way when it comes to sin. We cannot go at this thing alone, but we need others to rely on.

So, instead of getting defensive when another brother or sister approaches you, try to understand that they might really just be concerned with your wellbeing.

Just a thought.

Who Am I?

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

1 Corinthians 12:12-14

I work with college students, and I love to see the transformations that these students make over the period of academia. It brings me great pleasure when a student makes the decision to move beyond the faith of his/her parents and develop a new identity. It excites me when someone realizes his/her role in the church. This brings up my challenge for you: When you realize your role, you should own it.

In the section from 1 Corinthians 12 following the verses listed above, Paul encourages the people of the church to understand how their roles fit into the larger picture of the church. We all have different roles, and that is a good thing. We all need each other to function as the body should. GOD has put the body together, so we can take great comfort in knowing that we are the way we are for a reason.

It is also comforting to know that even though my part in the Kingdom does not look exactly like your part, it is still important. We all have a part in the Kingdom…everyone. If we do not grasp this reality, we will not be able to function at our full potential. It is like having a body with four arms instead of two legs and two arms. We need the different parts. Praise GOD for diversity!