Loving Your Neighbour

“He answered: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” – Luke 10:27

In their book “The Art of Neighboring”, authors Jay Pathak and Dave Runyon write: “In 2009 I (Dave) gathered a group of twenty lead pastors in the Denver area so we could think, dream, and pray about how our churches might join forces to serve our community. We invited our local mayor, Bob Frie, to join us, and we asked him a simple question: How can we as churches best work together to serve our city?

The ensuing discussion revealed a laundry list of social problems similar to what many cities face: at-risk kids, areas with dilapidated housing, child hunger, drug and alcohol abuse, loneliness, elderly shut-ins with no one to look in on them. The list went on and on. Then the mayor said something that inspired our joint-church movement: “The majority of the issues that our community is facing would be eliminated or drastically reduced if we could just figure out a way to become a community of great neighbors.

…After the mayor left the meeting that day, our group of pastors was left to reflect on what he had shared. I (Jay) can remember sitting there, and before I could think, I just blurted out, “Am I the only one here who is a little bit embarrassed? I mean, here we were asking the mayor how we can best serve the city, and he basically tells us that it would be great if we could just get our people to obey the second half of the Great Commandment.”

In a word, the mayor invited a roomful of pastors to get their people to actually obey Jesus.”

We need to love our neighbors just as Jesus does. Ask the Lord to give you eyes to see those in need and wisdom on how to help them.

“The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.” – GK Chesterton

“And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” – Matthew 22:39