Romans 13:9
"The commandments, 'Do not commit adultery,' 'Do not murder,' 'Do not steal,' 'Do not covet,' and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
"Love your neighbor as yourself is the commandment that God gave us. Who is my neighbor? When a teacher of law went to Jesus, he asked the same question, and Jesus told him the parable of a good Samaritan. A person was beaten up by robbers on the road, a priest passed by without stopping, a Levite also passed by without stopping, but a Samaritan, who's had generations of animosity against the Jews, stopped to take care of him. After Jesus told the parable, He asked the teacher of law, who is this person's neighbor?
Jesus didn't ask him, "who do you think is your neighbor?" Instead, He asked him "who is the neighbor of this person?" In other word, we shouldn't be asking who's my neighbor, but rather who's "his" neighbor. When you are asking "who's my neighbor" you are still being self-centered. To the Jews, only their kinsmen and relatives are their neighbors; to you and me, only those who care about us are our neighbors.
In a sociology class at university in the East Coast, the teacher asked the students to discuss how to pick one out of three emergencies to donate money to. The three emergencies are famine in Africa, scholarship for needy but outstanding students, and need to replace the copier for their department at the university. 85% of the students voted to donate the money to buy the copier, 12% chose to support the needy student, and only 3% wanted to donate to famine in Africa. No matter what the cause is, when we think of our neighbor, we always start with ourselves, but don't always consider the needs of the others. When we, however, start to shift our attention to who's the neighbor of the person in need, then we begin to take action to care for others. Paul said that we need to feel indebted, not just to our own relatives, but to feel indebted to those around us. We need to seek to benefit other in everything that we do and bless them. May the Lord help us to step out from our self-centered circle, and reach out to people in need to bring the love of Christ to them. That should be our testimony in this day and age.
Pray with Pastor Tong Liu
Lord, please pour the love of the cross into our hearts; let us be willing to walk an extra mile for you. Let us feel indebted in everything, so that we will pass on your love to everyone around us. I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!
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