Love Thy Neighbor

Foreword: I feel the need to preface the strong message below with a few personal words... so bear with me.

This post is about how we are called to love our neighbor.  It is not about how great I am at it.  It is just what our family strives for through all of the easy and not so easy encounters.  We are continually learning from our mistakes, growing, and trying to do better.  Just to make sure everyone knows.... we are not, and do not think we are, perfect or even close to it.  We have Jesus as an ever perfect example so we can strive to attain merely one small fraction of His sinless perfection.

Now that we are all on the same page, knowing that in our house, we are imperfect sinners still learning and trying every day to be good humans, I think we can continue on. 😄

I was talking with a colleague recently, and at some point our conversation turned to faith.

We were talking about our families, and at some point, we realized we were both Christians, and we started talking about Jesus and what He actually called us to do.

And we were both just nodding along.

Jesus loved everyone. And He called us to do the same.

It sounds so simple.

Love your neighbor.

What He didn't say was "Love your neighbor only when they look like you, live like you, believe exactly what you believe, or make choices you understand."

He just said to love them. It doesn't mean you have to agree with them.  Just love them enough to pray for them and treat them with respect and kindness.

This coworker and I, we recounted how Jesus lived, and how He didn't reserve His love for the people who had it all together. In fact, He repeatedly sought out the people others rejected, judged, or pushed to the edges.

The outcasts.

The sinners.

The people society had decided were somehow less worthy.

Jesus saw them. He sat with them. He ate with them. He loved them.

I think we can lose sight of that when we get caught up in deciding who is right and who is wrong.

Or when we start seeing differences in someone's skin color, affluence, heritage, religion, family, or way of life as a threat to the comfortable little corner of the world we've built for ourselves.

Different doesn't mean dangerous. Different doesn't mean less deserving. And different certainly doesn't mean less loved by God.

We don't have to agree with everyone.

We don't have to believe the same things.

We don't have to make the same choices.

But none of those things release us from the command to love one another.

As Christians, people should be able to recognize Jesus in the way we treat them — including the people who are different from us.

Especially the people who are different from us.

That doesn't require some grand gesture.

It's how we speak to people.

How we speak about people.

Whether we listen.

Whether we show compassion.

Whether we make room at the table.

Whether someone walks away from an interaction with us feeling valued or condemned.

As mentioned in the foreword, I am certainly not perfect at this. Not even close.

But this conversation was a good reminder for me of something that really shouldn't be complicated:

Jesus loved all people.

And if I'm going to call myself a follower of Jesus, I should be trying every day to do the same.

Love God.

Love your neighbor.

Pray for your neighbor.

Even when they're different from you.

Especially then.

We aren't called to decide who deserves our love. We're called to love.

And in a world that gives us a million reasons to divide ourselves from one another, I keep coming back to the same simple answer:

Just love each other ❤️