“…and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Jesus spoke these words often, as this principle was at the heart of his teachings. He even summed up the entirety of the ten commandments into two parts: love the Lord with all of your heart, soul, and mind, and “love your neighbor as yourself.”
But this seemingly simple imperative begs two questions. Who, exactly, are our neighbors, and what does it mean to love them as we love ourselves? Fortunately for those of us who may not get it right away, a teacher of the law came to Jesus wondering the same things. When he asked Jesus for clarification, Jesus told him the parable of the good Samaritan.
If you’re not familiar with the story, you can read it in Luke 10, verses 25-37. For a little primer on the social context, in Jewish culture at the time, Samaritans were not really recognized as people. They were seen as an unequal half-breed. A bitter rival. Samaritans and Jews had a long history of political opposition, hatred, vitriol, and hostility. Both groups fought with and tried to undermine the other. For a modern example, think of the relationship between two opposing gangs, Israel and Palestine, or the US and radical Islam. There was potentially no more hated enemy that Jesus could have chosen to use in his story.
This is not a passive statement or something we merely speak; this is the kind of love that requires action. We should want and seek the same comforts and securities for others that we have. … And we should sacrifice our own convenience for them to have them.
Our “neighbors,” as Jesus demonstrates, are not only the people whose company we enjoy, those who think like us and look like us. Nor are they solely those born in our country or people we think are safe. Our “neighbors” include our most hated enemies. Our rivals. Those who attack us. Those who think differently than us. Those who look differently than us. Those we don’t understand. It includes those who are oppressed. The widows. The orphans. The immigrants, legal or illegal. The refugees.
And what does it mean to love others as much as we love ourselves? The answer is fairly simple. It means that we should value others’ lives as much as we value our own. We should want all of the same things for others that we want for ourselves. This is not a passive statement or something we merely speak; this is the kind of love that requires action. We should want and seek the same comforts and securities for others that we have. The same freedoms. The same healthcare, prosperity, opportunity, dignity, grace, and mercy. And we should sacrifice our own convenience in order for them to have them.
Loving someone as we love ourselves means we should not be satisfied with having our own religious freedom if it comes at the cost of someone else losing theirs. It means that we should champion the rights and privileges of others at our own cost the same way we do our own. That we would not stand by idly while others are treated unjustly and discriminated against or leave others in danger when we have the capacity to help them.
Jesus clearly showed us that who our “neighbor” is has no bounds. Our love should not either.
These are all my own words. If you’d like a different source, then feel free to check out this article, which provides a great snap shot of what else the Bible has to say about this matter.
