Who Is My Neighbor?

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Sunday morning, the 13th of July, 2025.  A recording of our service should be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

Family, unless we’re fortunate enough to have a home out in the middle of a vast expanse, most of us live in a neighborhood.  And neighborhoods come in all shapes and sizes.  There are older, established neighborhoods, and newer, more recently built neighborhoods.  Newer neighborhoods these days come with a Homeowners Association that strives to keep property values up by dictating what can and cannot be done to homes and yards in the neighborhood.  Of course, all neighborhoods are composed of a group of houses within fairly close proximity, a defined area, often created by a real estate developer.  And the people living in those houses are neighbors, by virtue of living in a neighborhood.

OK, so much for the obvious.  But it can get a little tougher and not so obvious when we look at areas like our church building and parsonage are in.  How far up the City Lake Road does our neighborhood run?  Does it go down around the curve and past the lake, picking up the few houses along the way?  Or do we include all of Pilgrim Church Road?  What about Hill Everhart Road or Greensboro Street Extension or Ridge Road?

The tougher question may be who is my neighbor?  I consider the Waitmans and the Banks my neighbors, as well as Donnie Hege, the Spaughs, and Jeff Leonard.  But there are other folk living nearby, many of whom I don’t know, that I’m not familiar with.  And that is a common situation.  We may live very close to people we’ve never met, that we know nothing about, even though they are our neighbors.  Can we consider someone our neighbor if we don’t even know their name?

Last week we looked at the time when Jesus sent out 70 of His followers two-by-two, into the towns and villages He would soon visit.  This was kind of a follow-up to the time He sent His twelve apostles out to prepare the people for His coming, to proclaim the kingdom of heaven is at hand.  In both cases, He gave them specific instructions on what to take, where to stay, and how to interact with the people they encountered.  And He warned them that He was sending them out as sheep among wolves.

I’d like to pick up from there this morning, after the 70 returned and told of their experiences.  They had all gathered together, and that large a group would have drawn even more folks.  Jesus was a people magnet, after all.  So please listen and follow along to what came next, as recorded by the Apostle Luke in the 10th chapter of his Gospel account, verses 25 through 37, and I’ll be reading from the New King James Version of our Holy Bible this morning…

25 And behold, a certain expert in the law stood up and tested Jesus, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?”

27 So he answered and said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’”

28 And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”

29 But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. 33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ 36 So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?”

37 And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

--Luke 10:25-37 (NKJV)

Let us pray…  Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us a commandment that would make life so much better if we would all follow it.  There would be no more war, no hatred, no fits of anger, no fights or riots or shouting matches or finger pointing if we would all just love one another and consider everyone our neighbor.  But we are a stiff-necked people and we struggle to even love ourselves sometimes, let alone people who we perceive as our enemy.  We forget, Father, that You created everyone in Your image, not just us believers but everyone.  When we fail to love someone else, for whatever reason, it’s almost like we’re not loving You.  We’re definitely not showing our love.  Please forgive us our failures, Father.  Help us more closely follow Your command so we can grow ever closer to You and our Lord Jesus.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better grasp the message You have for us this day.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, our worship, and our service.  And please keep us healthy and safe through these trying times.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

I may have used this little anecdote before, but it makes a great point and reinforces our scripture.  This comes from Luis Palau in his book Experiencing God's Forgiveness:

A mother once approached Napoleon seeking a pardon for her son. The emperor replied that the young man had committed a certain offense twice and justice demanded death. 

"But I don't ask for justice," the mother explained. "I plead for mercy." 

"But your son does not deserve mercy," Napoleon replied. 

"Sir," the woman cried, "it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is all I ask for." 

"Well, then," the emperor said, "I will have mercy." And he spared the woman's son.

We would not need mercy if we somehow deserved what we are given.  Our salvation is granted by God's mercy, not that we could ever deserve it.  Since we first walked through the Garden, we have disobeyed God.  We have rebelled and turned our back on Him.  But still He had mercy and gave us the great gift of faith, a gift we can use, or ignore.  By our faith, we believe in His Son Jesus, and by our belief and discipleship, God again shows mercy and grants us salvation and eternal life.  And it all starts with love - God’s love for us.

So this cocky lawyer stands up and tries to trap Jesus in a battle of wits, not realizing he was woefully out-matched.  What must I do to be granted eternal life?  Now this would have been one of the Pharisees’ scribes, experts in the Law of Moses and very familiar with what we now know as the Old Testament.  So I’m sure he knew the answer.

Jesus was sure, too.  “How do you interpret what is written in the law about this?”, He responded, prompting the man to take the bait.  The man gave the correct answer, of course, quoting the letter of the law.  We are to love God and love our neighbor as we love ourselves.  Jesus agreed with his answer, and told the man that following this commandment would lead to eternal life.  But the scribe wasn’t through yet, for Jesus had not fallen for his trap.  “Who is my neighbor?”, he asked, setting the hook on his trap.

Who is my neighbor?  Jesus replied by telling what we call the Parable of the Good Samaritan.  And I think we often tend to think of this parable as being all about helping other people in their time of need.  While that certainly is a valid point and very good moral to the story, Jesus also answered that question of who is my neighbor.  But we have to read between the lines for that answer.

The obvious is as the man replied: the one who showed mercy.  This says that mercy is definitely a major component of neighborliness.  But the not so obvious answer comes from the identity of the good Samaritan.  We don’t know his identity.  We don’t know who he is.  All we know is that he is a Samaritan and the injured man is a Jew, and the two normally do not get along very well, to say the least.

Can our neighbor really be someone we don’t know, someone we don’t get along with, someone we consider our enemy?  Can we expect love from them?  Can we find it in ourselves to love them?

Love our neighbor.  Wise King Solomon, in the 21st verse of the 14th chapter of his Book of Proverbs, gives us a very good reason to at least try when he writes…

21 He who despises his neighbor sins; But he who has mercy on the poor, happy is he.

--Proverbs 14:21 (NKJV)

You know, that rings true for our next-door neighbor as well as for a neighbor as Jesus defines it.  If we sometimes didn’t despise our neighbor, then we wouldn’t have that old saying that tall fences make good neighbors.

Showing mercy to the poor can make us happy, Solomon says.  We have all experienced that good feeling when we help out the less fortunate.  But when Solomon speaks of the poor, I don’t think he only means those without financial resources.  There are many who are poor in spirit, whose hearts are hurting, who truly need mercy.  These, too, are our neighbors.

Getting back to Luke’s account, looking just a few verses before our reading this morning, I believe Jesus reveals more to us about understanding who our neighbor is and why it’s important to us.  Please hear what Luke recorded in the 10th chapter of his Gospel account, verses 21 through 24, immediately after the 70 returned…

21 In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. 22 All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”

23 Then He turned to His disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see; 24 for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it.”

--Luke 10:21-24 (NKJV)

Jesus has revealed to us just who our neighbor is.  He has shown us the Father, and the Father’s will.  We are to love our neighbor, and our neighbor can be anyone, even our enemy.  We are blessed if we understand this, and more blessed if we obey it.  Can you even imagine how much better this world would be if we all treated each other with love, if we considered everyone we encounter as our good neighbor, someone we want to know better and be closer to?  This is why God commanded us to love one another, that we might live in harmony with each other, rather than constantly be at each other’s throats.

Let’s give this love thing a chance and see if we can’t make our corner of the world a little better place. Let’s love our neighbor in the same way we love ourself, remembering that everyone is our neighbor.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for Your holy word and Your commands to us, that we might grow closer to You and to others we encounter.  If we show love to all others, we can show them Your love, and just maybe help bring them into Your household.  It saddens us, Father, when we think of all the people who will never recognize Jesus as Your Son or follow Him as their Lord.  There are many who have never even heard of Jesus, have not been told of all He did and taught.  And there are even those who deny Your existence, and the existence of Your Holy Spirit.  We admit that we have not done as good a job as we could reaching out to these people.  Too often we find excuses not to carry out our mission of making more disciples.  Sometimes we’re too busy, too distracted.  Sometimes we’re just too hesitant, too afraid of getting it all wrong and doing more harm than good.  Please forgive us those times, dear Father.  Please help us reach out to the lost, to anyone who does not know Jesus as their personal Savior.  Help us be more like Your Son in our love and our ways.  Help us show Your love to others by giving of ourselves, giving of our love freely, unconditionally, sacrificially, just as Jesus gave of Himself for us.  And please help us share our Lord Jesus with others so that they too may be saved by Your mercy and His sacrifice.  

Father, please shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith, trying to make us his own.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what comes our way.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, thank You for revealing our Father’s will for us.  Thank You for showing us just who our neighbor really is, and what our responsibility is toward them.  You are the Son and You know the Father.  Thank You for revealing Him to us.  Lord, we know it disappoints You when we don’t love others as You love us.  You told us to love others, even our enemies.  And You’ve let us know that anyone and everyone can be our neighbor in God’s eyes.  But it's so hard to love all people, to give of ourselves to those who don’t care about us, who would harm us.  It hurts to admit it, but we often let little things get in the way of our love.  And too often we hesitate to witness to You and the Gospel, making more disciples.  Please help us in our struggles to show You to the world.  Help us be more like You, loving all others, even those who hate us and wish us harm, without any concern for reward or recognition or even being loved in return.  Help us reach out to the non-believing world, sharing the Gospel message, showing Your love through our love.  Give us the words to say, show us the deeds to do to lead the lost to You.

Holy Spirit, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this world might offer.  All this we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.