Luke 10:25-29 – Who is my neighbor?

Remember that the disciples were still on the road with Jesus. In Luke 10:25-29 we are told that a lawyer, an expert on the Law, turned up to test Him. He came asking Jesus this question, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” An analysis of the question will reveal that it's an illogical question. No one ever receives an inheritance by doing something. An inheritance is an asset bequeathed to someone by virtue of his relationship with his benefactor who had passed on. In this case, to inherit eternal life one has to have a relationship with God through Jesus His Son. It cannot be obtained through doing something. 

Knowing the lawyer's intention, Jesus dealt with him from what he was familiar with – the Law. The Lord asked him, "What does the Law read?" Without hesitation, he responded, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus applauded him for being so precise and instructed him to go and do it. In our relationship with God, what's important is not just in knowing what God has said but also in doing it. Suddenly, the lawyer realized that he was caught by his own answer. As a Jew, loving God is not a problem. Every Jew is well-versed with the "Shema" recorded in Deuteronomy 6:4-5. A Jewish man, before his journey, would recite daily, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." 

This part of his answer was not his problem. His difficulty was in the part that reads "...love...your neighbor as yourself." Verse 29 tells us that he tried to extricate himself from the trap of his own making. So he asked the Lord, "Who is my neighbor?" For many HDB dwellers it’s like asking, who is being referred to here? Is it the guy living on my right or on my left? Or is it the guy that lives below me? Or is it the guy who lives in the unit above me? Since we have come this far, could Jesus be referring to the people in the whole estate? So which guy in the neighborhood are we referring to? Who exactly is my neighbor? His implication is this: if I don't know who my neighbor is, how then can I love him? Haven't we been caught in a similar situation? We come to the Word of God and all of a sudden a verse or two are no longer just black words on white paper. They are God's personal instruction to us. Like the lawyer, haven't we engaged in an analysis of the "why's" and "why not's" instead of doing it? 

Haven't we thought that by debating long and hard enough we might just find an excuse for not doing it? The point is this: when we have ascertained that God is leading us to act on a certain thing when reading God’s Word each day, start obeying it. Stop debating the whys and wherefores! God desires obedience because obedience is better than sacrifice!