Love Thy Neighbor

"Love thy neighbor," I was responding to a blog about nine Muslims family members removed from a plane in D.C. They were on their way to a religious meeting in Florida. One of the women blogging replied, "Love God first..." I don't think loving God was the problem. Loving thy neighbor is a big problem as evident by some of the other posts. It's the second day of 2009, and it's just like 2008 ended. A Danish man of Palestinian origin has been arrested on suspicion of shooting and wounding two Israeli salesmen at a shopping centre in Odense in Denmark, January 2nd. Israeli warplanes struck around 20 targets in Gaza today, raising the death toll in the territory to at least 414 in seven days of intensive bombing.

"Love thy neighbor" is a term that's become almost clichéd in America over the years. I hardly know my neighbors. I wave to people as I walk the dog or work in the yard, but if I saw them in the mall I would not recognize them. Growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y., I knew the neighbor. I thought they were so noisy. They were always correcting us kids, and making sure we behaved. It was a neighborhood of parents! As I grew older and moved, it's a time when neighbors, at least in my present neighborhood, are people we rarely see. Just this morning I am walking the dog at 0830. There was one guy riding a bike, and a lady out for a walk. I walked for 30 minutes, and saw no one else. Thanks to garage door openers and busy lives, we seldom see anyone.

Jesus summed up all the law in these two statements. If we love the Lord God with all our heart, soul and mind, loving our neighbor is the natural result. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments" (Matthew 22:36-40).

The question then is, who is our neighbor, and how do we love him or her? The world is as close as a computer, a cell phone and/or the webcams. We watched the New Year arrive with celebrations around the world. Our neighbor is no longer just the family next door, in church or subdivision. Now our neighbor also includes our enemies, far and near. Let's look at who Jesus says our neighbor is: You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. (Matthew 5:43) Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall not bear false witness," "You shall not covet," and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law (Romans 13:8-10). Nowhere does it say we have to like our neighbor!