Love your Neighbour as yourself. Do you know your Neighbour?

The dictionary meaning of neighbour is “a person living next door to or very near to the speaker or person referred to” but what does the Bible says about the neighbour. Who is our neighbour? Does the Bible also tell us the same definition as the dictionary defines?

Come on let us see according to the Bible that who is our neighbour? This is a story Jesus told to the lawyer who asked Jesus to tempt him by asking Jesus Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus told him the beautiful story mentioned in Luke 10:30-37.

A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said to him, Take care of him; and whatever you spend more, when I come again, I will repay you. Which now of these three, think you, was neighbor to him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus to him, Go, and do you likewise.

This story was told around 2000 years before by Jesus to a knowledgeable person as the Bible says that the person who questioned was a lawyer and he asked this question to tempt Jesus. How beautifully Jesus told him the story and asked him the answer to his question and the lawyer replied He that showed mercy on him and Jesus said to him Go, and do likewise.  The same law is for all of us also.

So the moral of the story and definition of neighbour according to Bible is the people who are in our surrounding are our neighbours. There is an old proverb; a friend in need is a friend indeed also gives the same message.

I would like to take another example from Mathew 22:35-40, Where again a lawyer asked a question to tempt Jesus that which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus did not tell him one commandment, but He told him two commandments and He also said that the second one is equivalent to the first one. Jesus also said that all the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.

Read from the New Testament, Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like to it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

These two commandments told by Jesus were not made by Him. He quoted these two commandments from the Old Testament. As I have mentioned in one of my previous article Faith alone in Christ is not only the key for salvation (Quick reference for those who missed to read) where Jesus said  that He has not come to destroy the law, or the prophets, but to fulfill. 

The first commandment Jesus quoted is from Deuteronomy 6:5 where it says, “And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” And the second commandment is from Leviticus 19:18, “You shall not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.”

In the Bible there are many references that quote to love your neighbour and it also says that if anyone follows this one word, fulfills all the law. Read what Galatians 5:14 says “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Leviticus 19:13, “You shall not defraud your neighbor, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with you all night until the morning.”

In Romans it says loving one another fulfills the law. See Romans 13:8-9, “Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loves another has fulfilled the law. For this, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, You shall not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, You shall love your neighbor as yourself”. These two verses of Romans tell very clearly that if we love our neighbours, we will not commit any such act which hurts another person.

Loving one another is the only solution to keep us away from all evils. See James 2:8-13, “If you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well: But if you have respect to persons, you commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, do not commit adultery, said also, do not kill. Now if you commit no adultery, yet if you kill, you are become a transgressor of the law. So speak you, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. For he shall have judgment without mercy, that has showed no mercy; and mercy rejoices against judgment”. Because if we follow and abide by all the laws of the scripture and fail to follow one, we will also be measured accordingly at the time of final judgement.  

Bible also says that whoever follows the rule of love is born of God because love is of God. 1 John 4: 7-8, says “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God. He that loves not knows not God; for God is love.”

Friends according to Bible neighbour means the people who are around us, wherever we are at home, office, business, marketing, travelling, flying etc. The people around us at that moment of time are our neighbours. Whether, we know them or not, we have to love them and help them in whatever ways we can. Love does not means that we have to say it by our tongue or express it in words, but it should be by heart because love is from God and that’s why it is said GOD is LOVE.