“Love thy neighbor as thyself”

 …Unwinding it… 

 Love 

 Everyone of us is able to define Love. I would like to leave it to your definition as per your experience. We all have experienced it in different forms. Baby after being born into this world experiences its first share of love through mother’s kisses and gentle cuddling. As days progress, baby responds to love with a smile as the mother pampers it with names like “cuuutiiiieeee", "eyyynngellllll", “lillll one”, “bayyyybieee” and others.

 God is love; We are made as beings of Love. We are wired to express it and to respond to it. Love exists, it manifests and it evokes a response too. 1 corinthians 13 talks about love. The chapter’s 7th & 8th Verse mention that love bears and endures all things and it never fails. Love is put ahead of faith and hope too (as in the last verse of the chapter) It is the greatest quality that every believer has in Him; 

 The commandment “Love thy neighbor as thyself” sets an action before us and prescribes a standard for it. Love can not merely be a feeling in heart. It translates into an action to affect a person compelled by time, situations and environment. 

 Do you love yourself?

 If one does not love himself, then his neighbor could be having a hard time. If one does not care inflicting pain on himself, then neighbor needs to be pitied or saved soon. Negligent driving, excessive smoking, drunken brawls, drugs, lawlessness are all menace to the society and they can all be fixed by solutions based on the premise of "Love thy neighbor".

 “Love thy neighbor” can be applied immediately.

Treat your neighbor how you want you to be treated. Treat his family member the way you want your family member to be treated. 

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Treat his belonging, the way you want your property to be treated. 

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If you lose your vallet somewhere, you expect someone to return it. 

If you find someone's vallet somewhere, will you not be bound to do the same? 

 Who is one’s neighbor ? 

 A person asked this to Jesus and He started telling a parable (The famous Good samaritan) When Jesus concluded, he ended with a question as to who became his neighbor. The samaritan going on his way came to the rescue of the man attacked by the robbers.

 Who was considered a neighbor in this case? One who helped, though a stranger, one who was willing to deal with him, one who wanted to have fellowship with him, one who came into contact with him even if he is a foreigner, became his neighbor. 

If a stranger who comes to help becomes a neighbor, then everybody has lot of neighbors not just the ones sitting next to you in school/ work place, not just the ones staying in your opposite/ next house. Now we understand that Jesus does not want anyone to be lonely. His definition already gave us enough neighbors. 

 Impact at a Personal level 

 At a personal level, “Love thy neighbor" saves lot of time. When you don’t bear any grudge, you don’t spend time thinking about a misdeed against you and start plotting to avenge. All this will save lot of time for you for good. Therefore you will contribute positively in a place you stay in. God wanted the society this way, may be someone rememebers a bad thing more than a good thing which can lead to stereotyping the whole community.To rip (or RIP 🙂 ) all of this in the bud, God suggested “Love thy neighbor”

In a connected world and with social networking sites in place , who is thy neighbor?

 

We are connected through whatsapp, facebook, and other connecting platforms over internet. People who once used to look at their PC for longer duration now tend to watch their mobile endlessly.

 With the technology coming in, haven’t times changed now ? Should neighbor be not redefined now ?

 Now the person who solves your query in a forum, a person in one of your whatsapp group whom you never met, someone who loves your comment on youtube, the members of your facebook group who sympathize with your cause are all your neighbors

 

 

Old testament & New testament

 What does it say of the God who gave such a law ?

 He loves all.

He governs impartially.

He has rules to give peace and tranquility in societies

The principle of Love is of utmost importance to Him.

Love binds families, societies and can make countries boundless

In the old testament too

We also have reference of "Love thy neighbor" in the old testament as well ( in Leviticus -19:18) 

Thou shall not covet the things that belong to your neighbor is the 10^th commandment. Covetousness comes with thoughts. You can flush out covetousness by filling your heart with love.

We have 7 verses of the same in the New testament :

Mattew-6:43 / Mattew 19:19 / Mattew 22:39 / Mark 12:31 /

Romans 13:9 / Galatians 5:13 / James 2:8

Love does not harm. It is not self seeking. (as mentioned in 1 corinthians 13)

Connected to the first blessing pronounced on humanity

When God created man, the first blessing He pronounced on them was "Be fruitful and multiply". The two commandments “Love God” and “Love thy neighbor” are actually for this blessing to take over.

When you love God, you are allowing him to influence and control your life. He will give/show you ways to be fruitful. When you love your neighbor, you are not hindering your neighbor to be fruitful. So on the whole you and your neighbor would be fruitful and so would your society be

 Infact, of the ten commandments in the old testament, the first four translate into “Love God”, the next six deal about honoring your loved ones and loving your neighbors. Once again we understand His vision is about happy neighbors and thriving society

Royal law of the scripture

 

James 2:8 calls it the royal law of the scripture. While writing to Galatians (5:13), paul says "The whole law is fulfilled in one word: Love thy neighbor." In Romans (13:8-10), Paul says that all the commandments are summarized in "Love thy neighbor"

 Jesus gave two commandments. Though, they seem to be simple, if you think about them, they have a lot of depth. They are given for the society to prosper. If everyone follows them, then earth would be like an extension of Heaven. Is it not what it was initially intended to be ?

 

 

That Which can meet Many Needs out there

 "Love thy neighbor” for a cold world out there

 It’s surprising to people in tropics that it snows in winters in some parts of the world. People there could also not relate to the ice age unlike the countries higher up the hemisphere.

 Many people when they came across the photo of iceboy (A chinese boy trekking roughly 4.5 km in snow to go to his school daily made headlines in 2018), they started to sympathise with him and help started pouring in.

The chinese boy with his family used to live in muddy house now moved to a two storey home closer to school. Also with this attention, his school got benefited as well. Heating systems were installed in classrooms and a dormitory was built for pupils from far away places.

 “Love thy neighbor” for a fighting and war-mongering world

The state of the world is like this because a country doesn’t love its neighbor as itself. They covet their neighbor territory. For that reason, the head of the state, how well it would be of him, if he considers a soldiers’s life as his own. He would not deploy troops for unnecessary engagements.

Thinking about soldiers and their sacrifices, it will be interesting to note that  they are the ones who practice “Love thy neighbor as thyself”. They protect the fellow country man from the enemy and get into the line of fire. They command the highest respect in any country. They are always a protection force and never a killing force if they don’t act aggressively as per the higher order.

They follow “Love thy country above thyself”

Love they neighbor stops something adverse in the very beginning

Once you get out of control (“without love”), you don’t know to what extent you can go to. To nip drastic unhealthy outcomes( war crimes) in the bud, love thy neighbor.

Love is the main product. Forgiveness is the by-product. We are wired to acknowledge forgiveness and it can be contagious too. “He forgave this much. I’ll forgive even more”. This is how it will start acting.

A couple of officers who were at concentration camps migrated to other country, they lived long life. When people found them out, they were deported to their native country. Though they would have lived a long life, in their old age they had to face this embarassment. When you are under a state which asks you to act against fellow human, it’s better to rebel against the state, than not to “Love thy neighbor”

Many of the war crimes were met with trial and punishment later. It’s simple to “Love thy neighbor” than to meet uncertainty in future

 “Love thy neighbor” for under-privileged world

 In many eastern societies, people who do menial work are treated below par. They in fact make the backbone of the society.

Think about a garbage collecting person or a person who cleans the washrooms or one who mops the floors at the public places. They may want you to follow certain rules. Someone who collects the garbage may ask you to give in a respective covers or at respective times. Some one who cleans wants you to do your part after using to keep it clean.

 You may not be meeting them directly, but their work meets you. When you imagine yourself in their role and people flout the rules, that is when you start pitying them and want to do your part.

 Imagining you in their role will what propels you.

                                        Love thy Neigbor (Part -2)