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Who is my neighbour?
When an expert in the law asked Jesus
“Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the Law?”,
Jesus replied;
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind”
and the second is just like it,
“Love your neighbour as yourself”.
Then the expert, seeking to justify himself, asked,
“Who is my neighbour?”
Jesus responded with a parable; the parable of the Good Samaritan. His message was simple and clear,
Be a good neighbour.
Being a good neighbour means allowing God’s love to flow through you to others, without distinction as to who those ‘others’ may be. The Pharisees and their followers despised the Samaritans in much the same way that a Hindu Brahmin despises the Untouchables (the Hindu caste-system being the most evil form of ‘apartheid’ the world has ever known).
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that, whosoever believes in him, should not perish but have eternal life.
(John 3:16)
Be a good neighbour!
Jesus gave his disciples a ‘new commandment’;
I give you a new commandment; Love one another as I have loved you.
(John 13:34)
And then Jesus explained that this sacrificial love, ‘as I have loved you’, would serve as the hallmark of His true disciples;
All people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
(John 13:35)
But He went further; His disciples were to love all their neighbours; even those neighbours who hate Christ’s disciples, who consider His disciples enemies, who abuse and persecute them. Forgive them and love them too.
Love your enemies and pray for those who hate you, persecute you, and abuse you; forgive those who crucify you!
(see Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:27 and Luke 23:34)
Love the saintly nun who dedicates her life to serving the Untouchables of Kolkata. And love the despotic khans who’s armies annihilated a fifth of the world’s population. Love every other human being, without exception.
Love all our neighbours, no exceptions.
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
(Acts 1:8)
Start here. Go there. Spread everywhere.
Being a good neighbour means allowing God’s nature to shine through you to the world; to your family, your circle, your community and beyond.
And this is God’s self-declared nature;
The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate, gracious and patient, abounding in steadfast love, faithfulness and forgiveness.
(Exodus 34:6)
Being a good neighbour means allowing God to fulfil his promise to Abraham, through you.
In you all the families of the earth will be blessed.
(Genesis 12:2)
Who is my neighbour, really?
Quite simply, your neighbour is everyone who isn’t you.
Your neighbour is everyone who isn’t you, no exceptions!
Could it be any simpler?
Three relationships that are closer than neighbours.
While ‘love your neighbour as yourself' is the general principle, we also find three special relationships that are more intimate than neighbours; two relationships are solidly within the context of ‘family’ while the third relates to our disciple-making mission.
1. Husband and wife.
This is a unique, exclusive and life-long relationship, a partnership between husband and wife. Together, they create a new family and fulfil God’s commission to ‘be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth’.
A man will leave his father and mother and unite with his wife and they will become one person.
(Genesis 2:24)
They are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let not man separate.
(Matthew 19:6)
2. Parent and child.
As we have seen, the Family is the basic ‘building-block’ of Christ’s Church; the God-ordained model to ‘be fruitful and multiply’ and to ‘make disciples in all nations’.
The parent’s primary role is to lovingly raise their children to become mature adults who can take their rightful place in the world.
These words that I command you today shall be on your heart. Teach them diligently to your children; talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise.
(Deuteronomy 6:6-7)
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
(Proverbs 22:6)
Parents, both fathers and mothers, are the elders and pastors (shepherds) of the church in their home; the family-model church.
My child, guard the commands of your father and do not forsake the instruction of your mother.
(Proverbs 6:20)
3. Fellow workers.
Here we find mission-centred relationships between fellow-workers on a ‘mission team’.
These relationships appear to fall into three distinct categories, or ‘Circles of Trust’;
- A Core Group of apprentices in training,
- An Inner Circle of confidantes, and
- A Support Network of disciples;
All fellow-workers being aligned with the mission team’s Vision, Values and Strategy (VVS).
We find these three categories in Christ’s fellow-workers.
A Core Group of Twelve Apostles.
Jesus selected twelve disciples and set them apart for apprenticeship training in order to equip them for their ultimate mission to ‘Go and make disciples in all nations’. Their apprenticeship began with a short period of training (being with Him) before being thrust into practical, supervised application (He might send them).
He appointed twelve (whom he called apostles) so that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.
(Mark 3:14-15)
And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.
(Mark 6:7)
Christ’s Inner Circle.
From the Twelve, Jesus drew Peter, James and John into His Inner Circle; inviting them to accompany him on certain, special occasions; most notably, His transfiguration and the final moments before His arrest at Gethsemane.
When he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him, except Peter, John and James, and the child’s father and mother.
(Luke 8:51)
Jesus took Peter and James and John, his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
(Matthew 17:1-2)
Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray”, and taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled.
(Matthew 26:36-37)
Christ's Support Network.
Here we find a larger group of devoted disciples who, while not part of the ‘Twelve’, actively participated in supporting Christ’s mission.
First we find a group of women who attended to Jesus and the disciples’ needs during his ‘ministry years’. They were also the ones who expected to prepare Christ’s body for, what they assumed would be, Christ’s formal burial (but of course, there was no body to bury).
The twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's household manager, and Susanna, as well as many others, who provided for them out of their means.
(Luke 8:2-3)
Now on the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women went to the tomb, taking the aromatic spices they had prepared.
(Luke 24:1)
Second, we find a group of seventy-two disciples who were also being trained as apostles; note that Jesus gave the seventy-two apostles the same authority over demons as He had given the Twelve Apostles; see Luke 9:1 and Luke 10:17. Could the Twelve Apostles each be training six apostles?
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.
(Luke 10:1)
Then the seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name!”
(Luke 10:17)
Third, we find a group of one hundred and twenty disciples, both men and women, gathered in the upper room after Christ’s ascension; some of them having been followers of Jesus from the very beginning.
All these, with one accord, were devoting themselves to prayer, with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. In those days Peter stood up among the brothers; a gathering of about one hundred and twenty people, and said … .
(Acts 1:14-15)
So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us; from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us …
(Acts 1:21-22)
Such are the dynamics in a Family-model church.
Not so in the synagogue model.
The problem with the synagogue model.
The synagogue model falls into the ‘Pharisee Trap’ by creating an additional special relationship;
People like us.
The synagogue model encourages, even insists that, its members to associate with people who conform to the same ‘beliefs and practices’, their traditions. In so doing they create their own subculture separating, even insulating, themselves from the sinful world around them.
Such sectarian relationships are antithetical to the disciple-making mission of the Church as exemplified by Christ who was frequently criticised for ‘eating with tax-collectors and sinners’.
The Christian subculture that emerges from the synagogue model is both unbiblical and anti-biblical.
“People like us” shows up in three guises.
1. Members of my religion.
I am a Christian!
What does that even mean?
Like a foghorn on a clear night, such a statement is completely unnecessary and irritating to non-Christians.
Jesus said,
Let your light shine before people, so that they can see your good deeds and give honour to your Father in heaven.
(Matthew 5:16)
Deeds, not words, are what really matter. And, since actions speak louder than words, if our ‘talk doesn’t match our walk’, it’s best to keep our mouths shut while we work on our personal sanctification, the ‘good deeds’.
But what does “I am a Christian” even mean?
To non-Christians, it means someone who claims to believe in Jesus Christ.
But, with so many divergent Traditions (beliefs and practices) in Christianity, what is a Christian, really?
Dig below the surface and it quickly becomes evident that not everyone who considers themselves to be a ‘real Christian’, considers every other Christian to be a ‘real Christian’.
Unfortunately, when ‘real Christians’, whatever ‘real Christian’ may mean, have to distinguish themselves from other Christians, they fall into the Pharisee-trap of sectarianism.
The result is that Christianity, with all it sectarian traditions, is a meaningless franchise completely disconnected from Jesus Christ, the master Franchisor.
If you love one another, the world will know that you are my disciples.
2. Members of my sect.
I am a Baptist. I am a Catholic. I am a Pentecostal. I am (fill in the blank)
Sectarianism separates. We are different to other Christians! We are right and here is a long list of reasons why other Christians are wrong.
Unfortunately, these hypocritical, sectarian distinctions dilute, even nullify, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
When I was a Christian, I protested against these sectarian distinctions by referring to myself as a “Neo-Pentecostal-Anglo-Charismatic-Baptist”; I was converted in a Pentecostal sect, attended a Baptist-run Bible College and married a Baptist. I then served in various roles in Anglican churches (both charismatic and non-charismatic), a small ‘church network’, some independent churches and a couple of house churches.
Quite simply, I was committed to serving God wherever the Spirit directed.
My protests never went down well with the professionals!
For example, during an interview to be appointed as a youth pastor of a charismatic Anglican church, the Anglican bishop told me “The Anglican church doesn’t need people like you!”. But, a few years later, another Anglican bishop approved me for ordination training.
3. Members of my synagogue.
This is probably the most sinister distinction because it creates sectarian, Christian subcultures in which Christians separate, and insulate, themselves from the neighbours in their communities; the very neighbours to whom Jesus Christ commissioned His disciples to share the Gospel!
You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem. Start here, where you are.
Each Sunday Christians congregate in their sectarian synagogues, seldom inviting non-Christian neighbours to accompany them ‘to church’. Are they too ashamed of their superficial, inauthentic sham being exposed?
In my role as a small-business strategy consultant, I was once invited to advise the board of a missionary society on their fund-raising strategy. This was a missionary society whose sole purpose was recruiting and sending missionaries around the world.
After listening to their goals and challenges, I wanted to know how well they were growing their pool of supporters in the city, so I asked,
“How well are you doing at preaching the Gospel and making disciples at home?”
These people were so insulated from the world that none, not one, of the board members was actively sharing their faith or making disciples. So I asked them each to make a list of at least fifty non-believers in their ‘circle of influence’ with whom they could initiate a conversation about the Gospel; a first step to making disciples ‘at home’. But these Christians were so ensconced in their Christian subcultures that most couldn’t think of twenty non-Christians in their circle of influence; they couldn’t think of twenty people with whom they would have the courage to share their dead religion!
Sitting there, I was reminded of Jesus Christ’s words to the scribes and Pharisees;
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
(Matthew 23:15)
In April 2005, I decided to give up the Christian label and “just be a human being”.
Call to Action: Be a human being.
Give up the synagogue labels and just be human!
The biggest advantage of ‘being human’ is that there are no stereotypes.
No one says, “Look at him, he calls himself a human being!”
Being human, we are judged on our own merits or demerits. We are never prejudiced by the reputations of others and our hypocritical actions don't prejudice others.
We're all in the same boat, imperfect human beings.
Being human is our lowest common denominator; the one characteristic that sets us apart from all other species, but not each other.
Being human is the only characteristic that unites all people on earth; we are all homo sapiens.
That’s a great place from which to share the good news of Jesus Christ.
The next Bible study.
In the next Bible study we will explore discipleship in the family-model church.
How, in the family-model church, new believers are expected to become disciples; to grow into maturity as effective, Spirit-filled disciple-makers.
How the family celebrates when disciples leave to start new, independent, family-model churches.
How every new family-model church is a fresh wineskin ready for the new wine.
And Christ builds His Church!
The stone ‘cut out without hands’, the Kingdom of God, ‘grows into a mountain that fills the earth’ as multi-generational, family-model churches grow and multiply in love, without human organisation!
There has never been a better time to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
