NEW SERIES begins July 24, 2022

 

How to Love Your Neighbor

Love. It’s the fulfillment of all God’s laws. It’s greater than any spiritual gift you could have. It’s part of why you are on earth. It’s even what Jesus said would confirm that we are His disciples.

Let’s be honest. It’s not always easy to love those around us. We live in an “age of rage,” a time when social media controversies are part of life and people regularly spew harsh and hateful words to one another. Yet, the follower of Christ is to be different. Scripture’s command to love one another sets Jesus’s followers apart from those who don’t know Him.

Join me for this six-session study that builds on the great commandment to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Prepare to ask yourself the tough questions. Prepare to practically serve and love others in your family, your church, and your community. Prepare to grow in God’s love. 

Build Relationships. Love is the key building block to establishing, encouraging, and strengthening our relationships. To put it another way, our efforts to build relationships come to nothing if we do not ground our words and actions in love.

How to Love Your Neighbor

1	Who Is Your Neighbor? Luke 10:25-37
2	What Does Love Look Like? 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
3	Pray for Your Neighbor 1 Timothy 2:1-8
4	Honor Your Neighbor Romans 12:9-21
5	Forgive Your Neighbor Matthew 18:21-35
6	Share Christ with Your Neighbor John 1:40-49

1

Who Is Your Neighbor?

Question 1:

Growing up, what type of chore or school assignment would you do “just enough” to get by?

THE POINT

Love compels us to be the neighbor others need.

THE BIBLE MEETS LIFE

Growing up in the McCoy household, I was known for being what I like to call “domestically challenged.” There was the time I folded and put away the dirty laundry … the time I put away the dirty dishes thinking they were clean (I blame the far-too-thorough pre-rinse) … and the time I loaded the dishwasher with liquid dish soap and, well, you can guess what happened next.

I was notorious for cleaning according to what my parents would inspect, but not necessarily what they would expect. Things looked tidy on the outside, just don’t go opening any closets or drawers. What seemed neat and clean was often only surface-level clean.

Jesus got a response a lot like this when He told someone to love his neighbor as himself. When the man heard it, his first response was to ask Jesus about actions God would inspect, instead of about the heart God expects. You and I can fall into the same mindset, and if we do, we not only miss one of the Lord’s most important teachings, but we will miss out on fulfilling our purpose.

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

Luke 10:25-28

25 Then an expert in the law stood up to test him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 “What is written in the law?” he asked him. “How do you read it?” 27 He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself.” 28 “You’ve answered correctly,” he told him. “Do this and you will live.”

We’re going to visit one of Jesus’s more familiar stories, the parable of the good Samaritan, but let’s catch an important detail: Jesus told this parable in response to a pointed question. The man who asked Jesus this question was a Pharisee, “an expert in the law.” We usually think of the Pharisees and religious leaders in the Gospels as the “villains” of the New Testament because they were so antagonistic toward Jesus, but we forget that these men were considered to be among the most morally upright in the community. This man was a teacher, considered an expert in Scripture. He knew all about God’s laws. He even memorized them.

Except he completely missed the point. Just look at his opening question: “Teacher, what must I do?” He was focused on outward actions, but the real purpose of the law was to show us that we can’t do anything to be right with God, any more than we can fly to the moon. The law is meant to point us to a Savior beyond ourselves: Jesus Christ. The very law this religious leader knew backward and forward should have led him to cry to God for mercy, knowing he could not possibly live up to God’s perfect law, much less be worthy of eternal life with God.

But this expert in the law still wanted to give it a shot.

Jesus, in a method as old as the garden of Eden (Gen. 3:8-13), began to draw out the truth by questioning him. And, of course, being the expert in the law that he was, the man "answered correctly." 

Question 2:

What does this man’s question reveal about his understanding of God?

He knew what was written and he zeroed in on the commands that Jesus had identified earlier as the two greatest commandments, when another “expert in the law, asked a question to test him: … “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:35-39).

Now came the challenge: Jesus told him to obey the law. “Do this and you will live.” Knowing what God’s Word says matters little if we choose not to follow it. In fact, the more we know, the more responsible we are for obeying what we know. This religious leader knew very well what God’s commandments required, and he was responsible for obeying—or not.

Luke 10:29-32

29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus took up the question and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.”

This religious leader wanted “to justify himself” and be righteous on his own. His plan was to scrupulously follow the law (which is impossible). Therefore, he wasn’t looking for information when he asked, “And who is my neighbor?” He was looking for exoneration—an acquittal and an excuse for his behavior. The truth is, his neighbor—and our neighbor—is not limited to those who live nearby; our neighbor is every other human being. But this expert in the law wanted to find a way to get out of fully obeying. He wanted to know what Jesus would inspect to make sure he’d obeyed “properly,” not what Jesus would expect of His followers.

He surely knew the scope of the command. Why else would he try to find a loophole to keep from following it? This expert in the law wanted to reduce God’s command to something he could complete in his own power. That was likely because he knew that loving our neighbor as ourselves is impossible. Only God is good enough to love everyone, and only the love of God in our hearts can produce that love in us.

Jesus’s response to the man’s question gets to the heart of God’s law and shows the unbreakable connection between someone’s true spiritual identity and how they treat others. The story was set in a familiar place for Jews: the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.

Engage

BEING NEIGHBORLY

Circle some of the ways people have been neighborly to you. List some ways you can be a good neighbor. Then answer the question. 

List three ways you can be a good neighbor:

1.

2.

3.

How can these conversations and activities reflect God’s work in your life?

“Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

1 JOHN 4:7-8

Travelers were vulnerable to being assaulted and robbed. The traveler in Jesus’s parable was brutally beaten and left to die on the side of the road. His only hope was for someone to find him in time to save his life.

Enter the outwardly “righteous.” Both the priest and the Levite were “religious professionals”; priests offered sacrifices in the temple and Levites assisted the priests and had various duties in the temple. But for all both men had in piousness, religious duty, and knowledge of the law, they utterly lacked in mercy, humanity, and compassion.

These leaders knew God’s law, but they didn’t know God. The one who knows God and loves Him also loves his neighbor. And the one who loves his neighbor refuses to ignore that neighbor’s needs. The priest and Levite in Jesus’s parable remind us that we, too, can become experts in God’s Word, yet fail to follow His ways. When we do, we prove we’ve never known in our hearts the Lord we profess with our mouths.

Question 3:

Why might we look past other people’s problems rather than help them?

Luke 10:33-37

33 “But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion. 34 He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’ 36 “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” 37 “The one who showed mercy to him,” he said. Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”

Jesus’s parable features one of the most unlikely heroes in Jewish culture: “a Samaritan.” In every way, Jews believed they were superior to Samaritans. A good Jew would have had nothing to do with a Samaritan. So, imagine the response of a Jewish religious leader when Jesus used a despised Samaritan as the hero of His story.

Was Jesus trying to get under this man’s skin? No. Jesus was addressing the man’s question: “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29). But Jesus turned the question around: “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” The true question is not who is my neighbor but what kind of neighbor am I?

Of course, the true neighbor was the one who had compassion. The Samaritan’s compassion came at his own expense. Everything the Samaritan had was at the disposal of this total stranger. The true neighbor in Jesus’s parable was the man who fulfilled the heart of God’s command and showed mercy.

Question 4:

What risks do we take in loving others well?

Jesus was unimpressed by this man’s knowledge. Instead, He was concerned about the condition of his heart. After the religious leader acknowledged that “the one who showed mercy” was the true neighbor, “Jesus told him, ‘Go and do the same.’ ”

Tragically, many church members are well-rehearsed in God’s Word, but they don’t follow His ways. They are preoccupied with doing what God inspects, but they don’t have the heart He expects. But the one who is truly born of God lives in the love of God—and loves others.

Question 5:

What’s the relationship between our love for God and our love for others?

LIVE IT OUT

Love compels us to be the neighbor others need. Choose one of the following applications:

• Pray. Clean out a messy drawer or closet, and as you do, ask God to empower you not to settle for what He inspects but to give you a transformed heart that pursues what He expects.

• Focus. Determine with God’s help not to brush past people, but to slow down, look them in the eye, and give them the attention, mercy, and grace they need. Make time to spend time with people.

• Help. Pack several zippered plastic bags with a water bottle, healthy nonperishable snacks, a pair of socks, and a Bible with a handwritten note. Keep these bags in your vehicle to hand to people standing on street corners holding up signs asking for help.

We may not all be able to clean well, but we can certainly love well. Learning to love others with the heart God expects, rather than just performing actions we think God inspects, is a maturing process. Empowered by the Spirit, we can take steps to grow in the grace of loving others. 

Teacher's notes:

The Parable of the Good Samaritan tells the story of a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho, and while on the way he is robbed and beaten almost to death. The road to Jericho is a road that was known for robbers and thieves. People pass by but never stop to help. Finally, a good man comes by and stops to help. We call this man the “Good Samaritan” because he saw his neighbor as anyone who was in need.

What might this look like today?

“Grand Canyon” begins with a white man driving a luxury car that strays off his usual route and breaks down in a deserted urban landscape where he finds himself threatened by black youths. 

At first, to be sure, the white man (Kevin Kline) believes he is going to be killed by the ominous black muggers, one of whom displays a gun. But then a tow truck arrives, driven by another black man (Danny Glover), who talks to the leader of the would-be thieves and defuses the situation. 

A few days after the street incident, Kline seeks out Glover for a cup of coffee because, he says, he wants to thank the man who saved his life. He doesn’t want it to be just a chance meeting in the night. He sees Glover as his good Samaritan (Neighbor) and he wants to be friends! 

Glover makes an interesting summation of the way things are: “World isn’t supposed to work like this – this isn’t the way it’s supposed to be. I’m supposed to be able to do my job without asking you if I can. That dude is supposed to be able to wait in his car without you ripping him off. Everything is supposed to be different than what it is.”

 

What was your neighborhood like growing up?

How would you describe your current neighborhood?

 

What if you could save somebody’s life just by being their neighbor?

  

Who is Your Neighbor?

The Point: Love compels us to be the neighbor others need.

The Passage: Luke 10:25-37

In this lesson, we are to witness the effect true love for God will have on our love for and willingness to be involved with others — our neighbors. However, our concept of “neighbor” and “neighborhood” increases to include those we otherwise would have avoided. Our love for God will lead to love of others — those near and far; those known casually or known well. Some we don’t know at all but are on our path of life.

 

Luke 10:25-28

Then an expert in the law stood up to test him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the law?” he asked him. “How do you read it?” He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself.”  “You’ve answered correctly,” he told him. “Do this and you will live.”

 

What did the man’s question reveal about his understanding of God?

·      The wording of the question gives us some insight into where the scribe’s heart was spiritually. He was assuming that man must do something to obtain eternal life.

 

Why did the expert in the law test Jesus?

• maybe to see if Jesus understood the law, or whether He would say anything contrary to it, or maybe the lawyer wanted to gain an advantage against Jesus, and expose Him, and get credit and applause to himself.
• Jesus directed his attention to the law. What did the law demand? It demanded that man love the Lord supremely, and his neighbor as himself. Jesus told him that if he did this, he would live.
• The lawyer then asks another question "who is my neighbor?" to the Jews a neighbor was an Israelite, a person of the same religion.
• In telling the parable Jesus was saying even your enemy is your neighbor.

 

Why didn’t Jesus explain the truth about salvation? Why did He refer him to the law and specifically to the man’s interpretation of the law?

·      He focuses on our relationships and what it means to love.

 

What did Jesus tell the man to do?

·      He told him to Love – Love God and others.

 

He said…

1.    Love for others is tied to our love for God.

We love our neighbors out of an overflow of God’s love for us and as a way of demonstrating our love toward God.

(1 John 4:7–12; Colossians 4:5–6; 1 Peter 3:15–16)

The expert in the law was quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. He correctly understood that the law demanded total devotion to God and love for one’s neighbor.

 

Luke 10:29-32

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”  Jesus took up the question and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead.  A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.”

This scribe was an educated man, and he knew that he couldn’t possibly keep that law. There would always be people in his life that he could not love. So, he tries to limit the law’s command by limiting its parameters - “who is my neighbor?”

The word “neighbor” in the Greek means “someone who is near,” and in the Hebrew it means “someone that you have an association with.” This interprets the word in a limited sense, referring to a fellow Jew and would have excluded Samaritans, Romans, and other foreigners.

Jesus then gives the parable of the Good Samaritan to correct the false understanding to the scribe about who his neighbor is, and what his duty is to his neighbor.

 

What might keep us from helping someone in need? Can we separate love for others from love for God? Why?

 

2.    Love for others does not lead to ignoring them.

·      Followers of Christ are not to look for ways to limit acts of compassion.

·      Even people who are in bad situations because of poor choices need someone with compassion to help them.

·      We fail to show love when we fail to act on behalf of others.

·      Our awareness of the needs of others confronts us with the challenge of whether and how to respond.

Luke 10:33-37

“But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion. He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back, I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’  “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” “The one who showed mercy to him,” he said. Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”

 

Because the good man was a Samaritan, Jesus is drawing a strong contrast between those who knew the law and those who followed the law in their lifestyle and conduct.

 

What does this parable teach us about how God views love?

How does our love for others reveal our love for God?

·      The Lord commissions His followers to demonstrate love for God by loving others. Love is shown by action. Love is not limited to certain people or situations. Love can be costly.

 

3.    Love for others leads us to go out of the way to provide help and support in time of need.

There was a deep hatred between Jews and Samaritans. The Jews saw themselves as pure descendants of Abraham, while the Samaritans were a mixed race produced when Jews from the northern kingdom intermarried with other peoples after Israel’s exile. To this law expert, the person least likely to act correctly would be the Samaritan. In fact, he could not bear to say “Samaritan” in answer to Jesus’ question. This “expert’s” attitude betrayed his lack of the very thing he had earlier said that the law commanded – love.

 

Conclusion:

Jesus is telling us to follow the Samaritan’s example in our own conduct, for example, we are to show compassion and love for those we encounter in our everyday activities. We are to love others regardless of their race or religion; the point is their need.

 

The lessons of the Parable of the Good Samaritan are three-fold:

·      Lack of love is often easy to justify, even though it is never right.

·      Our neighbor is anyone of any race, creed, or social background who is in need.

·      Love means acting to meet the person’s need.

 

Wherever you live there are needy people close by. There is no good reason for refusing to help.

It is important to understand what true love is. We love people by genuinely seeking what is best for them. Loving others does not mean agreeing with everything they say or do, nor does it mean acting in ways that always gain their approval. Loving our neighbors means attending to their needs—both physical and spiritual. We love our neighbors when we, like the Samaritan in Jesus’ parable, have compassion for them and help meet their needs as we are able. We love our neighbors best when we share God’s truth with them. Jesus alone can save (John 14:6; Acts 4:12), and He alone can meet people’s every need.