Loving the World: Who is My Neighbor?

Who Is My Neighbor?

Loving the World Around You — Even When It Costs You Something

This week, we had a guest speaker, Ken, a missionary in West Africa come and talk to us about Luke 10 while telling us about his life in the mission field:

Watch the sermon from our guest speaker on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjVs-xCL6jo

Listen to the sermon on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1VewqB9FCPYrYwhvV8lNqa?si=vUrA5vgdQECYFUPErOqlgg

Can I ask you something? When was the last time you really saw someone? Not just glanced at them, not just nodded in their direction — but truly stopped, looked them in the eye, and thought, ‘This person matters to God.’ Because here's where I think a lot of us live: we're busy, we're tired, we've got our own problems, and somewhere along the way, "loving our neighbor" became a lovely idea we believe in but don't always live out.

Jesus had something to say about that — and He didn't leave us a lot of wiggle room.

The Question That Started It All

In Luke 10:25–37, a religious lawyer walks up to Jesus with a question that sounds sincere but is really a test: "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" (CSB). Jesus, being Jesus, turns it back around and asks him what the Law says. The man answers perfectly: Love God with everything you've got, and love your neighbor as yourself — pulling straight from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. Jesus tells him, "Do this and you will live" (Luke 10:28, CSB).

But then the lawyer does something most of us do when the truth makes us a little uncomfortable. He tries to narrow the definition. He asks, "And who is my neighbor?" (Luke 10:29, CSB). Translation: How little can I get away with? Who exactly do I have to love?

And Jesus answers with one of the most famous stories ever told.

The Story We Think We Know

A man is beaten, robbed, and left half-dead on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. Two religious leaders — a priest and a Levite — pass by on the other side. They saw him. They just kept moving.

Then a Samaritan comes along. Now, in that culture, Jews despised Samaritans. These two groups did not associate. If anyone had an excuse to keep walking, it was him. But Luke 10:33–34 tells us he "had compassion," went to the man, bandaged his wounds, put him on his own animal, took him to an inn, and paid for his care — even promising to cover any additional expenses when he returned.

Jesus then asks the lawyer: which one of these three was a neighbor to the man who was robbed? The lawyer can't even bring himself to say "the Samaritan." He just says, "The one who showed mercy to him" (Luke 10:37, CSB). And Jesus says simply: "Go and do the same."

Those four words are still sitting there, waiting for each of us to respond.

Your Neighbor Isn't Who You Think

Here's what the Samaritan story blows up for us: our neighbor is not just the person next door. It's not just the people who look like us, vote like us, or go to the same church as us. Jesus deliberately chose a Samaritan — an outsider, someone the audience would have found surprising — as the hero of the story.

Your neighbor is the coworker who gets on your nerves. The stranger at the gas station who looks lost. The family at the shelter who needs a meal. The elderly woman at church who talks a little too long. The child in your community who needs someone to believe in them. Your neighbor is anyone God places in your path who has a need you have the capacity to meet.

Even the Old Testament held this standard. Exodus 23:4–5 instructs God's people to help their enemy's wandering animal or struggling ox — an enemy! If that's the bar God set in Exodus, imagine what He expects of us now, on this side of the cross.

Loving People Costs You Something

The Samaritan didn't just feel bad for the man and keep walking. He stopped. He spent time. He spent money. He disrupted his own plans. That's what love actually looks like — and we need to be honest with ourselves that real neighborly love will cost us three things.

It will cost you your comfort.

Staying on your side of the road is comfortable. Crossing over to where someone is hurting — that's awkward, inconvenient, and sometimes messy. But Matthew 9:35–38 paints us a picture of Jesus who saw the crowds and had compassion because they were "distressed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd" (CSB). He didn't look away. He didn't protect His peace by ignoring the need in front of Him. Helping people is uncomfortable. Do it anyway.

It will cost you your time.

The priest and Levite were probably busy men with important places to be. But busyness is not a virtue when it blinds us to the person bleeding beside the road. James 1:19 tells us to be "quick to listen, slow to speak" (CSB) — and listening takes time. Real neighborly love means slowing down. It means putting the phone down. It means being present.

It may cost you financially.

The Samaritan paid the innkeeper out of his own pocket and promised more if needed. Generosity is part of loving your neighbor. But here's some grace for the rest of us: financial giving, while important, is not the only way to love someone. And before we let money become the reason we don't engage at all, let's look at everything else we can offer.

More Ways to Love Than You Might Think

Loving your neighbor doesn't always require a big budget or a dramatic rescue. Sometimes it's the smallest things that leave the biggest mark. Here are some ways you can be a neighbor starting today:

• Smile at someone. It sounds almost too simple, but a genuine smile from a stranger can change the tone of someone's entire day. You never know what someone is carrying.

• Pray for the people around you. Keep your eyes open to needs in your neighborhood, your workplace, and your community — then actually bring those people before God. Pray by name when you can.

• Open a door. Literally and figuratively. Small acts of courtesy are love made visible.

• Lend a helping hand. Notice when someone is struggling with groceries, a moving box, or a yard that's gotten away from them. Jump in without being asked.

• Take time to listen. Really listen — not to respond, not to fix, just to hear someone. James 1:19 calls us to this. It's a rare and precious gift to give another person.

• Share a meal. Few things break down walls like eating together. Invite a neighbor for dinner. Bring a meal to someone going through a hard season.

• Be patient with a neighbor's quirks. The neighbor whose dog barks, whose grass grows too long, whose music drifts through the fence — grace covers a multitude of quirks. Choose patience over irritation.

• Find ways to serve. Look around your community for gaps — a food pantry short on volunteers, a school needing tutors, a senior center needing visitors.

• Volunteer at church and in your community. Our church exists to be Help, Hope, and Home for the people around us. That mission doesn't happen without people who show up and serve.

Faith That Works — Not Just Words

James 1:22 cuts right to the heart of it: "But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves" (CSB). And James 1:27 gets even more specific — pure religion, the kind God accepts, is looking after orphans and widows in their distress and keeping yourself unstained by the world.

We can love the idea of loving our neighbor. We can nod our heads when the pastor preaches it. We can sing the songs and say the amens. But James is asking us — gently but firmly — to let what we believe change what we actually do.

Remember the rich young ruler who came to Jesus in Matthew 19:16–22 asking how to have eternal life? He had kept every commandment. He was a good, religious man. But when Jesus told him the one thing missing was to sell his possessions and give to the poor, the man walked away sad — because he was unwilling to let it cost him. Don't let that be your story.

Three Questions Worth Sitting With

Before you close this article, I want to leave you with three questions that I pray will work their way past your head and into your heart:

What will you do?

Not what could you theoretically do someday — but what specific act of neighborly love will you take this week? Name it. Write it down if you have to.

What will it cost you?

Be honest about the cost. Your comfort, your time, your money, your pride. Naming the cost doesn't excuse you from paying it — it prepares you to pay it willingly.

Do you care?

Not just in theory. Not just on Sundays. Do you actually care about the people God has placed around you? Because love, as Jesus showed us, moves. It crosses the road. It gets its hands dirty. It stays when it would be easier to leave.

This Earth Is Not Our Home, But We Have Work to Do While We're Here

Here is the beautiful, steadying truth underneath all of this: we don't love our neighbors to earn salvation. We love our neighbors because we've been saved. We love because He first loved us. And one day, when we stand before God, every cup of cold water given in His name, every hour spent listening to someone lonely, every door held open, every prayer whispered for a struggling neighbor — it will matter. Your reward is in heaven.

This earth is not our home. We're passing through. But while we're here, we are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus on every road where someone lies wounded and waiting. Our church exists to be Help, Hope, and Home — and the only way that becomes real in people's lives is when ordinary believers like you and me decide to cross the road.

So, friend — go and do the same.

Your Plan of Action: Go and Do the Same

Practical steps to move from knowing to doing — starting this week.

Daily Practices

• Begin each morning by asking God to open your eyes to one person who needs a neighbor today.

• Practice a simple act of love before you leave your house: hold a door, wave to a neighbor, offer a genuine smile to a stranger.

• Pray by name for at least one person in your neighborhood, workplace, or community who is struggling.

This Week

• Identify one specific neighbor — by face or name — and do one concrete thing to serve them this week. Cook a meal. Help with yard work. Drop off a card. Make the call you've been putting off.

• Take 15 minutes to sit with the three questions: What will I do? What will it cost me? Do I care? Write your honest answers down.

• Read Luke 10:25–37 again — slowly, as if for the first time. Ask God to show you who your Samaritan neighbor is.

This Month

• Find one place in your church or community to volunteer regularly — a food pantry, a children's program, a senior ministry, a local shelter. Sign up. Show up.

• Invite a neighbor, coworker, or acquaintance to share a meal with you. Let the conversation go wherever it needs to go. Just listen.

• Look for someone who is often overlooked — in your neighborhood, your congregation, or your workplace — and make a point to notice them, learn their name, and show them consistent kindness.

Ongoing

• Keep your eyes open. Train yourself to notice who is sitting alone, who looks overwhelmed, who might need someone to just show up. The Holy Spirit will direct your attention — trust that.

• Remember the cost and choose it anyway. When loving your neighbor feels inconvenient or uncomfortable, remember: you are storing treasure where rust and moth cannot destroy (Matthew 6:20, CSB). Your reward is in heaven.

• Let this become your lifestyle — not a seasonal program or a once-a-year mission trip, but the regular, ordinary rhythm of a believer who walks with open eyes, open hands, and an open heart.

Blessings,

Donna

Key Passage: Luke 10:25–37 | Supporting References: Deuteronomy 6:5, Leviticus 19:18, Exodus 23:4–5, Matthew 9:35–38, Matthew 19:16–22, James 1:19–27 | All Scripture quoted from the Christian Standard Bible (CSB)