“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.
