Who is our neighbor?

“And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.” Luke 10:37

Who is our neighbor?  By what label or classification would we place this group that we would call neighbors?  Would it be proximity?  Or, personal relations?  Is it the family next door?  Or our co-workers?  Perhaps the homeless man (or women) on the street?  To whom does the Bible command us to love as we would love ourselves?  Who is our neighbor?

The lynchpin to the greatest commandment is love.  The hallmark of a disciple of Christ is love.  Love is and always will be the character and cord that binds God to his children, his children to God, and to one another.  Love is the character of God and we cannot be God’s people without having this principle character.  The love of God is not something that humanity is naturally born with.  You will not work or grow into it.  The love of God can only be obtained by obtaining the Spirit of God.  The lawyer was inquiring of Jesus, tempting him, what he must do to inherit eternal life.  Jesus asked him what the law said, and the lawyer replied: to love God and love his neighbor.  Christ answered, thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.  The lawyer, willing justify himself replied “and who is my neighbor?”  Here we find a qualifying question, a diversifying question.  Who is my neighbor?  To whom must I show my love to, what people am I required to love and what people am I allowed to shun.  No doubt he longed to hear Christ tell him to love those to whom he would benefit from showing love to.  Or he was hoping that Jesus would list someone with whom he already loved.  Regardless, his own conscience condemned him in the command to love his neighbor, and he tried to justify himself; while the justifier was standing right there!  Christ simply replied with the parable of the good Samaritan.  The man who took the time from his busy life to help someone in need.  A man that looked not on status, or demographic, but simply saw a child of God in need and showed mercy.  The Samaritan recognized that a neighbor is not an individual, race, creed, social status, location, but a state of action.  Neighbor is the distance between a person who needs help and the person who is able to give it.  Therefore, neighbor is everyone.  He that shewed mercy was he who was a neighbor.  Christ commands us to go and do thou likewise.  To abandon the temptation of comfort and contentment, and hazard ourselves for the good of our fellow man.  To love our neighbor as ourselves.  For the Christian.  Love cannot be commoditized.  It cannot be manipulated.  It cannot be rationed.  It cannot be reserved for the whites and not the blacks.  For the rich and not the poor.  For our family, and not yours.  If love is God’s character, and we are filled with the Holy Ghost, with the love of God living in our heart.  His love vouchsafed into the heart of Christian.  The heart of the sanctified.  Does it not follow that we should go and do thou likewise?  What reception into heaven can we expect if we fill our own coffers while our neighbor has not a dollar to his name?  What will be said of him who knew the comforts of a warm bed, and a cozy house; while his neighbor suffered in the cold?  To him who filled his belly with the finest meats, while his neighbor starved?  If we dispense the gospel only in word and not in deed, do we really expect to be received into heaven?

Christ has called us to go and do thou likewise.  Do.  The Samaritan was the Good Samaritan, because he stopped and did something for his neighbor.  He showed the love of God, where others did not.  Go and do thou likewise.