Being a Good Neighbor

I’ve been running this theme through my head for a couple of years now and every few months it gets more complicated, confusing, and difficult with moments of clarity and simplicity thrown in.

It’s a theme that is going to drive much of 2012 for me personally and consequently, the direction of NeighborLink. I’ve used it as the title of our winter training series that starts on Jan 21st. It is also being thrown around as the title of a pretty major video learning series we’re looking at producing this year.

I think it’s vital to living out the gospel. The greatest commandment goes like this:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

Once we’ve chosen the first, it’s time to live out the second. I believe Jesus spends most of the time in the new testament challenging us, showing us, and commanding us to embrace the second. If we choose to follow Jesus, then it’s time to embrace the second commandment and its messy, difficult challenges.

So, what does Being a Good Neighbor mean to you? The great part and also complicated part about it, is that it means a little something different to each of us. I think it should. As much as our culture tries to make us homogeneous, we’re not, and we’ve got to come to terms with that in the Christian and ministry world. The personal relationship with Jesus is just that, personal. His message is universal but we all have different levels of personal comprehension.

For me today, Being a Good Neighbor means this:

John 13:34-35 - “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."