Who Is My Neighbor?

When I first started writing this I figured it was just going to be a short, little post. Maybe 500-750 words. The more I wrote the more I could see needed to be written. In the end it had over 2,700 words and there were even 500 words that I had edited out of it. Hopefully you'll find the following to be a blessing. I've included a few books at the end for suggested reading. These are materials that I called back to when writing different parts of this post. While I don't think you need to have read any of them to understand what I've written, if you have read them you will probably at least understand why I've written what I've written a little better. If nothing else, they are all good reference materials! 

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was (Mark 12:29-31) He quoted the Shema out of the Hebrew Scriptures.

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)

Jesus answered, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."  (Mark 12:29-31)

With our more western eyes we as Christians (or maybe I’m just talking about my personal experience growing up?) are so far removed from the Hebrew culture that our first century Scriptures were written in that we don’t understand that the Shema is recited every day (twice per day, actually) in the traditional Jewish home. So, when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment is, this was pretty much a no-brainer.

I’ve already written on what it means to love the LORD a couple years ago so why don’t I just link to that here and move onto the second part of this statement… but I’ll just say this real quick: We show our love to God by showing our obedience to Him. But, again, that’s in that older post. Let’s get to the second part of this greatest commandment…

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Initially we had looked at the book of Mark, but let’s look at this same account in the book of Matthew.

"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And he 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 great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."  (Matthew 22:36-40)

In this account we get a further explanation at the end. Everything that is meant to be learned in all of the Torah, and everything meant to be learned in all of the rest of the Old Testament is right there in those 2 commandments. Love God and love your neighbor. Every other commandment that we find in all of the Old Testament (and the New Testament, too, for that matter) is based on these two instructions.

Love God and love your neighbor.

The rest of the book is all about discovering how to do those things. And, yes, sometimes it gets complicated.

Love God and love your neighbor.

We’ve seen that you show love to God by expressing your allegiance to Him through your obedience to His instructions, but how do you show that you love your neighbor? Well, for starters, you can look at the second half of the 10 Commandments. The first four are all about loving God, and then the next six are instructions on how to love your neighbor. When Jesus said that all of the Law and the Prophets depend on those two commandments He wasn’t just messing around. Those two commandments are the meat behind all of the 10 Commandments. In fact, traditionally it is typically understood that there are 613 total commandments in the Torah (and there are over 1,000 given by Jesus in the New Testament), and each one of those commandments can be summed up as love God or love your neighbor.

We’ve seen Jesus talk about loving God and your neighbor from two different books in the Bible, why don’t we look at a third…

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the Law? How do you read it?" And he answered, "You shall 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 your neighbor as yourself." And he said to him, "You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live."  (Luke 10:25-28)

But then the ‘lawyer’ followed this up by asking another question which puts the whole thing in context, and make it a lot more difficult, too. This lawyer asked the Messiah, “who is my neighbor?” It’s a perfect question, really. If I’m supposed to love my neighbor as much as I love myself, who in the world is my neighbor? The answer that Jesus gives is a game changer. In true Jesus-fashion, He answered with a story (he who has ears to hear let him hear…)

Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.' Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed him mercy." And Jesus said to him, "You go, and do likewise."  (Luke 10:30-37)

Let’s take a minute to look more closely at the example Jesus provided us with. What I want to look at is who could’ve helped the man, and then who actually did. First of all, the examples given go in descending order of how highly an Israelite would’ve thought of the person, largely based on how close that person was allowed to the Holy of Holies. I guess I should clarify something real quick: all Priests were Levites but not all Levites were Priests. Just like all New Yorkers are Americans but not all Americans are New Yorkers (I believe the first person I heard say this was Rico Cortes, but it was more about Puerto Ricans than New Yorkers, or something like that…).

So the Priests, out of this group of people, were the people who were allowed to go to the place on the Temple that had the highest level of kedusha (holiness). Important to the subject matter would be that according to Levitical Law, you could become ritually unclean and unable to approach the Temple. We often think of ‘unclean’ as being synonymous with ‘sin’, but this really isn’t the case. To be ritually unclean wasn’t something to be desired but it really didn’t change the day-to-day life of most people in the Kingdom. However, if you had to work at the Temple for your vocation, being ritually unclean would’ve meant that you weren’t able to do your job. Not coincidentally, coming in contact with a dead body would make you ritually unclean. In fact, the Pharisees believed that if even your shadow passed over a dead body then you become unclean. So, with that minimal understanding, let’s look at the actions of the priest in question.

First of all, it’s important to notice that the priest came down the same road as the man who had been robbed and was laying there half dead. The important part of this is that the priest was actually traveling away from the Jerusalem and the Temple. Jerusalem is at a higher elevation than Jericho and you would go down to Jericho and up to Jerusalem. So the priest was traveling away from Jerusalem, and away from the Temple where his level of sanctification would be most important. He’s moving away from the place where his having touched a dead body would mean that he couldn’t perform his duties. So regardless of whether your shadow touching a dead body actually made you unclean, this priest’s being unclean wouldn’t have mattered as far as performing his priestly duties; he easily could’ve helped the man in distress. In fact, his true priestly duty (being the representative of God to the people) would’ve been to go out of his way to help out this robbed and beaten man. In N.T. Wright’s book The Day the Revolution Began he explains the vocation of image-bearers and priests as follows,

Humans were made to be “image-bearers,” to reflect the praises of creation back to the Creator and to reflect the Creators wise and loving stewardship into the world. Israel was called to be the royal priesthood to worship God and reflect his rescuing wisdom into the world. (p.99)

Israel had for-the-most-part declined their priestly duty when they told Moses that they wanted a mediator between God and themselves, but this didn’t change their calling. If priests were supposed to reflect God’s rescuing wisdom into the world, I don’t think we need to look much further than Jesus to see how that look. I doubt there’s anyone out there who would come away from reading these verses and say that Jesus was saying that the man should’ve just been left there.

The Levite in this story would have similar restrictions placed on them regarding cleanliness, only it would be less strict than those placed on Priests. But still, the Levite would not naturally want to risk coming in contact with a dead body. I don’t really want to spend too much time on the Levite, since a good understanding of his station in life would’ve just been gone over when we talked about the priests. You know, but a little less than a priest…

Before we get to the Samaritan I want to point out that these first two examples that Jesus gives us would have been considered to be in the highest echelon of Jewish society. The LORD was smart enough to not the king be allowed to also be the High Priest so the King would’ve been seen as standing on the top rung of the social ladder, but the High Priest would’ve been right below the king. And the rest of the priests would’ve been right beneath him. And then the Levites would find their place right after the priests. In fact, as far as the Temple (the actual home on earth of the King of the Universe), the High Priest would’ve been held in higher standing than the king. The High Priest was the only one who was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies (and, even then, only one day each year…). In 2 Chronicles 26 there’s even the telling of King Uzziah being stricken with leprosy by the LORD because he was so prideful as to think that he could burn incense at the altar of incense inside of the Temple. Looking into what leprosy would’ve been in Biblical times and how that is different than today is a totally different study, but it’s worth looking into.

So now we have a Samaritan. Anyone who’s been around the block once or twice in Christian circles has probably heard that the Jews hated the Samaritans. The reason behind this is a bit long but I think it should suffice to say that the Samaritans were living in the land of the former Northern Kingdom, and even claimed to worship the LORD, but they claimed that God’s holy mountain was not in Jerusalem (along with quite a few other things, but this should at least let you know why most Jews would view the Samaritans as heretics who shouldn’t be dealt with). And yet, there’s a Samaritan man who sees this same man who has been left for dead, and apparently even looks like he may already be dead, and he not only lets his shadow touch the man but he takes care of him. He attempts to disinfect the man’s wounds by pouring oil and wine onto them (hey, I guess any alcohol is better than no alcohol when you’re trying to disinfect…). Then he does something even more outrageous: The Samaritan placed the man on his own animal and led him to an inn. In our culture the part the comes next probably seems like the greatest thing but, in the Ancient Near East placing a foreigner on your own animal and leading it around would’ve made it look like you the servant and the man on the animal were the master. In an honor and shame society this would’ve been the same as when Jesus washed the feet of all of His disciples!

Is there any question as to who acted the most ‘neighborly’?

Now it’s time for some reflection and an admission: I’ve lived in the same place for 4 years, right next door to the same neighbor for that whole time, and I’ve talked to him like 2 or 3 times. How neighborly am I being? How much of an ambassador am I being for my King when I don’t even remember my literal next-door neighbor’s name?

Really quickly here I would like to circle back to the quote earlier from N.T. Wright. We talked about how Israel was called to be a kingdom of priests (Ex 19:6) but we didn’t mention how that means us, too. We, though we may have been born gentiles, have been grafted into the olive tree that is Israel (Romans 11:17-24). Another way to say this is that we have been adopted into the family. So if Israel’s vocation was that of being a royal priesthood, should we expect that we also are a royal priesthood? Let’s look at 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” Peter was obviously calling back to the words written in Exodus but he’s saying them to believers in Jesus. The book of 1 Peter was written to churches in Asia Minor (think Turkey), and we know that there were a decent amount of Jewish believers in those communities but we also know that there were quite a few believers who were once gentiles. The entire book of Galatians (which was a city in Asia Minor) was written so that the believing congregation would not give credence to those Jews coming up from Jerusalem saying that the non-Jewish believers needed to convert to the teachings of Judaism (for lack of a better term) before becoming believers in Messiah, or even before they were allowed to share a meal with them. For better understanding of this whole ordeal I would suggest the book King, Kingdom, Citizen by Tyler Dawn Rosenquist.

So what’s the takeaway?

If I had to sum it all up real quick I would probably quote Jesus when He said the following:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (Matthew 5:43-45)

So who’s your neighbor? Everyone, including your enemy.

Let that one marinate for a little while…

Suggested Reading:
The Bible

Exodus 19, 23; Leviticus 19; Deuteronomy 6; 2 Chronicles 26; Matthew 5, 22; Mark 12; Luke 10; 1 Peter

Discovering the Locations of the Temple Complex – Joseph Good & Nolan Armstrong
The Day the Revolution Began – N.T. Wright
King, Kingdom, Citizen – Tyler Dawn Rosenquist

The Psalms 15: Who Shall Dwell On Your Holy Hill

I had been ruminating on this psalm for quite some time (even though it's only 5 verses long) and just when I was about ready to collect my thoughts and put them out there Tyler over at The Ancient Bridge went and posted something that expressed most of what I wanted to say and made me question if my post was even going to be necessary. Quite honestly, if this was going to be on something longer than 5 verses then I probably wouldn't have. But, I figured in the name of keeping things going, I may as well get my thoughts out there for you as well. I hope that you took the opportunity to read what Tyler wrote. If you haven't then I'm going to link it RIGHT HERE so that you can check that one out, too. She's a great writer and I think you'll appreciate what she has to say.

With that said, here's what I came away with...

A Psalm of David.
1 O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?

This one starts out with a lofty goal. When speaking of the LORD’s tent, we need to remember that, before there was a temple in Jerusalem, there was a tabernacle. The NKJV translates this verse as, “LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill?” The word translated as ‘tent’ is ‘ohel’ (H168 – אהל). This is the word that was used when speaking of the Tent of Meeting (Ohel Moed – אהל מועד) in Exodus 33, and not the normal word used for tent (sukkah – סכּה). This is the place that Moses would go to meet with the LORD, in person. And the ‘holy hill’? You mean the mountain of the one true God? Yeah, who, indeed!?

That’s why the upcoming verses are so impactful.

2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart;

There are a few people in the Bible who are said to be blameless. This is an extremely tall order. While the term doesn’t demand that you never sin, it does demand that when you do sin you notice it and you repent (turn away with no intention of turning back). All of that being said, the Hebrew word that is translated as “blameless” is the same word that is used to describe the sacrificial animal offerings who are without blemish (tâmı̂ym – תּמים). It is also the same word that’s used when describing Noah as ‘perfect’ in his generations. So, all things considered, this is still a pretty tall order. The takeaway, though, is that this lofty goal is actually attainable. No matter how hard it may seem at first glance, this is a thing that can be accomplished. You may not be able to do this overnight (though, I’m perfectly willing to admit that with God all things are possible) but it’s something to shoot for. When a person first starts exercising they’re not able to run a 4 minute mile, or deadlift 500 lbs (at least this is what I’ve heard – I’m sure those who choose to exercise would be willing to give you more detail if you care to search out one of those types of people…); you have to bring you body into submission and train it to be able to perform at those levels. Likewise, we have to do the same thing to exercise ourselves in spiritual matters. Paul speaks to this in 1 Cor 9:27 when he says, “No, I keep on disciplining my body, making it serve me so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not somehow be disqualified.” We have to push on to the goal (Phil 3:14), but that goal is not out of reach (Deut 30:12, Rom 10:6)!

3 who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend;

I’m actually working on an article right now that dives more deeply into who are neighbor is so I don’t want to dig too deeply into that right here, but the easy answer is that it’s everyone. So if the goal is to be able to enter into the tabernacle of the LORD, this should be convicting to pretty much all of us. It’s so easy, especially in today’s social media culture, to let the tongue slip and ‘slander’ someone. The dictionary definition of slander is to make a false or damaging statement about someone. Did you notice the that I highlighted the word ‘or’? That means that, even if it’s true, speaking a damaging thing about someone is slander. Man, I’ve messed that one up quite a bit, and I owe a lot of apologies. Choose your words wisely because we have a standard that we should be trying to live up to. We read in the book of James the following:

Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?  (James 4:11-12)

I know that my Judge is a just God, and that He is all-knowing and can see every side of every situation. Why would I think that I know any point of view aside from my own? Instead, shouldn’t I be supportive to my neighbors? Shouldn’t even my rebukes be dipped in honey instead of dripping with sarcasm and stuffiness? I know that I often fail at this one, but I want to get better, and I hope act more like my Messiah when given the opportunity.

4 in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the LORD; who swears to his own hurt and does not change; 5 who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.

If someone fears the LORD, even if I disagree with their specific twist on a pet doctrine, why would I give them anything but honor when I’m dealing with them or referring to them? This is so convicting. Am I wise enough to discern if a person truly fears the LORD?

I always try to make it a point in my life to never charge interest if I lend money to someone. Honestly, if I do lend money out I usually give it with the expectation that it won’t be returned. More often than not, I tell the people that it’s a gift and that I don’t want repaid. I’m not saying this so that I can sound like a better person than anyone. Truth be told, the reason I do it that way is because I’m worse. If I don’t make it known that it’s a gift then I’ll obsess over being repaid and that can lead to bitterness and offense. I know my limitations and I don’t ever want to have bitterness and offense toward one of my brothers or sisters. So I guess that moral of that story is to know yourself, and know what you’re capable of (good or bad).

I hope that this has been a blessing, and I hope that you are spurred onward to living the life that the Father wants you to live.

May our allegiance to our King make us the ambassadors that He needs us to be to this lost and hurting world!