Who is my neighbor?

This question from Luke 10 has been all over my heart this morning: Lord, who is my neighbor? While browsing along that topic line, I found an article that had this to say:

"But in this story Jesus says that our neighbors are especially those people who ignore us, those people who separate themselves from us, those people who are afraid of us, those people we have the most difficulty loving and those people we feel don’t love us. These are our neighbors. In Matthew 5:46 Jesus says, “If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?” Anybody can do that.

Christianity doesn’t require any power when its only challenge is to do something that already comes naturally. But it will take a powerful gospel—a gospel with guts—to enable us to love across all the barriers we erect to edify our own kind and protect us from our insecurities.

How are you answering this question to your children— and to the world?

Maybe the question is not being asked in words, but believe me, it’s being asked. Maybe you are not answering in words, but you are answering—if not in words, then surely in deeds. As the old saying goes, “Our lives speak so loudly that the world can’t hear what we are saying.”

Jesus said our witness, our credibility to the world, is demonstrated by our love for each other. There is no greater witness to the genuineness of our gospel.."  ~Spencer Perkins       

(Link to his full article here)

So, who is YOUR neighbor? Who do you disagree with the most, find the most unpleasant, or even disgusting? Whose life or lifestyle do you find the most against God? Who would you avoid, given the choice? A homeless person? A tattoo-and-piercing-riddled man? A pregnant teen smoking outside of a store? Someone with less money than you who doesn't fit your social standard? Someone with more money than you, and who you deem doesn't deserve it? Someone of a different race? A set of two moms or dads at the park with their child? The drunk sleeping off a hangover in the ally by the local bar? The harried mother in the grocery store with one child pitching a fit in the cart and another two or three wreaking havoc on the aisles around her? A person of a different religion - or worse, a person of the same religion as yours but who doesn't share every single standard you hold dear? Someone (or everyone) of differing political conviction? At whom are you looking down your nose? 

That person is your neighbor. 

That person is someone God sent and commands you to love and be compassionate towards, even above people you already enjoy naturally. 

My point being that if you are a Christian and believe the Bible, emphasis on loving our neighbors is important. You can disagree with a person to the very core of your being, but you must, MUST show them the love and compassion commanded of you by God. 

Charity is a verb. Charity requires action. I disagree with many things in this world, but not enough to hate the person I disagree with. If my life doesn't reflect a recognition and compassion towards my neighbors, I have failed half of the two greatest commandments. If God were using a grade scale, that is an F. 

The Good Samaritan story is about so much more than an injured man. It is a life lesson, meant to take us outside of our boxes and into our discomfort zone to show the real love of God. 

Christianity that is self-serving is good to no one. Snobbery and holier-than-thou sanctimony says nothing of God and everything in the world about our inability to follow His commandments towards our fellow man. May we always locate and love our neighbors as God loved us and as we love ourselves.