Who Is My Neighbor?
SCRIPTURE:
Jesus said, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Galatians 5:14 NKJV)
DEVOTIONAL:
(Last week we read about the good Samaritan in Luke, chapter 10, and we discovered this truth): The priest and the Levite knew the law, but only the Samaritan fulfilled the law. Jesus was about to establish a “New Covenant” based on GRACE, not on works. As Paul would later write, “not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life” (2 Corinthians 3:5–6).
Love is an action word! John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son….” As a child of God, you can’t love without being moved by a Divine unction to give. Love demands action. It demands giving. As the Body of Christ, we should be on the frontlines of giving God’s love to a lost and hurting world.
Through the “good Samaritan,” Jesus illustrated that our neighbor is not just those from our “same tribe,” be it racial, ethnic, political, or religious. Our neighbor may not look like us, talk like us, or believe like us. They may not even live next door to us. Our neighbor is any person who needs God’s love, mercy and compassion.
PRAYER:
Dear Lord, I want to be like the “good Samaritan” and show Your love to whoever You place in my path today. Show me how to be a “good neighbor,” how to help, and how to be Your witness. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
