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Your Neighborhood 10/30/07 |
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The
entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as
yourself." |
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When Jesus told the story of the good
Samaritan, He established a definition even older than Europe's Middle Ages.
Your neighbor is not someone who necessarily lives near you, nor does it
have to be someone with whom you are acquainted. According to Jesus in Luke
10:25-37, my neighbor is any person who has a need that I am able to meet.
Jesus made the point in His parable that the man the Good Samaritan helped
was a stranger—not a "near-dweller." Yet the Samaritan assumed the
responsibility for doing everything he could to help. Today we think of neighbors as those who live on our street or in our neighborhood. Yet, using Jesus' definition, we have many more neighbors than those. We need to broaden the boundaries of our neighborhood to include the whole world. If my heart is right with God, every human being is my neighbor. |