Have you ever thought about what it means to love your neighbor as yourself, as it was described by Jesus? This same concept has been echoed throughout the New Testament. But what does that really mean? Love your enemies?
This was so important that its meaning goes back all the way to the Old Testament in Leviticus 19:18 which reads: “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”
Does it mean that you should go over to the person who lives next door to you and tell them that you love them? Well, not quite. What about, if I borrow a tool from my neighbor, I should always return it? Even though that is a good practice, I don’t think that is what Jesus had in mind.
Fortunate for us, Jesus was asked that very question in the Book of Luke in the New Testament. His answer comes in the form of a parable and is called the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25. So, just as a point, Samaritan’s during the time of Jesus were not well-liked people.
The Parable
The Parable goes something like this:
A man was walking down a street in a part of town that was frequented by thieves. He was attacked by people who wanted to rob him. They beat him, took anything of value, and left him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road and saw the man who had been beaten. He moved to walk on the other side of the street, passing him. This happened again by another person.
But then, a random stranger, the good Samaritan, came across the man and took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, doing all that he could to stabilize the man. He then put him in his car and drove him to a motel and took care of him. The next day, he went down and paid for another two days of motel room for the man. He asked the inn keeper to check in on him and give him anything he needs and that he would reimburse him for any expense he had.
Then Jesus asked, “which of these three men were a neighbor to the injured man?”
Teachings
Jesus made it clear that the idea of “doing to others as you would have them do to you” was very apparent in this parable, which we know as the Golden Rule.
Jesus goes as far as to issue a new command to His followers. In John 13:34 Jesus says “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” Now, we know that Jesus said this to His disciples but we know that it has a broader application to us all.
So, we now know that we are supposed to love our neighbor. But what about our enemies? In Matthew 5:43 it states, “Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” Jesus helps us understand that love may be hard sometimes but should be unconditional.
We all have had people in our lives that have shown tendencies to be against us or everything we believe in. Frankly, many of us have had people that we would, for sure, call enemies and might even go as far as to say we hate them.
Love your Enemies?
But if we continued to read what Jesus told us, we would understand that those people who are so called enemies are really just people that have problems of their own that they are unable to deal with.
That is why Jesus tells us to pray for them and to give them love because we know from his teachings that love is always greater than hate and love will always win. It is like a dark room which would be hate. Dark cannot exist no matter how hard it fights, when it is replaced with light, which is love.
He makes it clear that doing the harder thing is always worth a greater reward in heaven than doing the easy thing. We know that loving some of the people we hate is a big challenge. Jesus explains that it isn’t enough to love the ones that love you. Don’t just greet the ones that greet you. Even the least of us can do that. Go out of your way to talk with those that you know need it. Love those that might not love you. Besides having a great feeling inside, you will surely be rewarded by your Heavenly Father.
Now that we know who our neighbor is, doesn’t it make sense to try and do something for them, knowing that we all need a bit of help now and then. Take a moment right now and think of someone who really needs some extra TLC and go out of your way to provide it. Then, start working to make it a habit.
