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 Who is my neighbour? 

‘Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbour to the man who fell among robbers?’ He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘You go, and do likewise.’ 

When we think of neighbours, we think of the people who live next door to us or people in our neighbourhood, but Jesus goes much further than that when He talks about what it means to be a neighbour. 

One day a man asked Jesus, ‘Who is my neighbour?’ So Jesus told him a story about what it means to be neighbourly. ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.’ 

The man who helps out is a Samaritan. These are different racially than Jews. And there was serious racial tension between the Jews and Samaritans. They certainly didn’t understand each other. They certainly didn’t like each other. 

According to Jesus, your neighbour could be someone who you don’t naturally like. I’m sure you can think of some people like that in your life; people you don’t get along with, people who rub you the wrong way or people you have a serious problem with for deeper reasons. These people are your neighbours. 

Is there someone who you typically would not be very nice to? God is challenging you today to be a neighbour to that person. Care for them. If they have a need, you meet it. 

Written by John North