Who Is My Neighbor?
- Eric Whittle
- Aug 17, 2024
- 2 min read
As we have been studying forgiveness this month and looking at Peter’s question of how often I should forgive those who have sinned against me, I have been thinking about another question that was asked of Jesus. Who is my neighbor? In Luke chapter 10, Jesus had been asked which was the greatest commandment. He answered to “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul and mind” and then offered a second commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself”. Then he was asked “who is my neighbor”. Of course, we know He answered that question with a parable, the parable of the good Samaritan. This got me to thinking who is my neighbor today?
In today’s world, we are often so busy that we don’t even really know our neighbors. When I was growing up I knew most everyone around me in my neighborhood, especially the neighbors who lived next door and across the street. I would like to share a story from my childhood that has stuck with me to this day. When I was first learning to ride my bike, my dad was teaching me to ride it in the cul-de-sac in front of our house. Our neighbor saw this and came out and without us asking began to record this. As I would struggle and eventually learned to ride, he recorded the entire event for us so that we could cherish it forever. You might say, well that was nice of him but there is more. You see, his daughter is handicapped and has been wheelchair bound her entire life. He would never have had the opportunity to share something like this with his daughter, but he knew how important it was to my parents, so he offered to capture that moment for us. He loved his neighbor. I will always remember the impact that had on my parents.
Our neighbor is anyone who we can have an impact on. I challenge us all to look for our “neighbors” everyday and try to impact them for Christ. As always, remember you are loved because all of you are my “neighbor”.
Eric
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