“Love your neighbor as yourself”
I expect you recognize this commandment as being from the Bible. Whether you are a Jew or a Christian you recognize this verse as important. Jesus quoted this verse several times and classified it as one of the two greatest commandments. Paul and James also quoted it. This is an important verse. But what does it mean? What does it mean to love my neighbor? What does it mean to love my neighbor as myself?
If you think about your neighbor as someone who lives next-door, perhaps you hardly know them. Probably you don’t love them. Perhaps you dislike how they care for their yard or their lifestyle. Perhaps they are foreigners. In the worst case scenario, you may even view them as your enemy! But Jesus told us that we are to love our enemies (Matthew 5:43-45) so that we may be more godly. And in the Old Testament law, we are commanded to love foreigners—we are even told to love them as ourselves! We don’t have to like others in order to love them. The key to loving our neighbor, whether they live nearby or far away is how we treat them.
Here is the passage that started it all: “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19:18) Notice that this verse tells us how to treat our neighbors: without retribution or resentment. That same chapter also says not to steal from them, lie about them, or defraud them in any way. In fact, we should be careful not to jeopardize their life through our own recklessness. The Apostle Paul would summarize this verse by saying that love does no harm to another person, so the commandment to love our neighbor is the fulfillment of the whole law (Romans 13:8-10).
Suppose your neighbor is a foreigner, how should you treat them? Actually the law tells us how to treat foreigners, and it is very specific: “When foreigners reside among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigners residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19:33-34) God’s law says that we are not to mistreat foreigners in our land but to regard them as equal to citizens! Foreigners are also neighbors we are to love as ourselves! Another statement regarding this is found in Deuteronomy: [God] “defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigners residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 10:1719).
We are to love foreigners as much as God does. We are to love foreigners as much as we love ourselves! God gives them food, so we should also do that.
So how are we love our neighbors, whoever they may be, in order to love them as ourselves? Jesus gave us a rule for how we ought to treat others. We call it the Golden Rule: “In everything, do to others what you have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12) The Golden Rule says we must treat others as we want to be treated. This rule is a radical statement of human equality— so radical that we often ignore it. And Jesus said that this rule summarizes the law and the prophets. In order to follow God’s law, we must view others as our equals and treat them as we want to be treated! If we do this, we not only keep the Second Great Commandment, and we love as God loves!
Once an expert in the Jewish law asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”—meaning, “Who do I have to love as myself?” I suspect this lawyer wanted to define neighbor as a small-size group of individuals whom he was required to love as himself. It seems impossible to love a large group of people as much as I love myself! Jesus answered his question by telling a story that we call the Good Samaritan. The story included two Jewish citizens as the bad guys, and a foreign stranger, a Samaritan, as the hero. This stranger was good, we know that because he stopped to help the victim of a mugging left beside the road. He gave him first-aid and then took him to an inn where he paid for his room, board, and his medical care, and offered to return to pay more if needed. This foreigner followed the Jewish law of loving your neighbor better than the Jews did!
After telling this story Jesus asked the lawyer which person in the story was a neighbor to the man in need? Notice that Jesus reversed the question the lawyer had asked. It was no longer “Who is my neighbor?’ but ‘Who acted like a neighbor?” According to the lawyer, the man who showed kindness to a stranger in need was the true neighbor. So Jesus told the lawyer (and Jesus tells us) to go and be as good as he was! (Luke 10:25-37). He shows us how to love our neighbor as ourself.
Greg Giles is a published author, who, along with his wife Jean, has embraced the call to serve and teach around the globe. Their life together has included missionary work in Liberia, Bangladesh, teaching in China, and raising a family in Bemidji, Minnesota. Between global travels and local commitments, including serving as superintendent of Corn Bible Academy and their current parttime roles at Corn Heritage Village, the Gileses have found “home” in many places; yet, they now happily reside in retirement in Cordell.