Looking outside Oneself

As we have started to settle into our new normal routines in Prague, we have spent a lot of time looking around us and learning what are norms in Prague and the Czech Republic. One thing that we were told and have since seen in our new home is how people on public transportation give up their seats for elderly people when they get on the tram, bus, or metro. Not only do they do it, young people are quick to notice others who need a seat more than themselves. Though Prague is mostly an atheistic city, the biblical principle of loving others is present, at least in this part of the culture, though I suspect it is in many other areas as well.

In Scripture, we are called to love the Lord our God, we are called to love one another (that is other believers), and often we leave it there. It is easy for us to believe that being a Christian means we love the Lord, though we often fail to do so, and it is easy to believe that we should love our fellow Christians (at least those within our denominational background or circle of friends), but it is hard for us to love 'the other'. It is hard for us to love the unbeliever who lives outside the truth found in biblical teachings. It takes a special kind of humility that can only be found in the love of God, to love those who think we are wrong, who think we are stupid for our beliefs, or believe that biblical truth is actually immoral, unethical, and evil. We have to look beyond ourselves, we have to stop thinking about how that person fits into our world and start seeing that they are apart of God's world; that they are made in the image of God and are worthy of our love just as we have received God's love. That love is not manifested by telling them they are wrong, that they are going to hell, or that they do not know the truth (though there may be an some exception here), but rather that love is like giving up our seat for them on the bus. To love those who do not love us is self sacrificial, it means putting their needs ahead of our own, and it is often inconvenient.  We are to lower ourselves humbly before them so that they might see the truth.

Love our Neighbor as Ourselves

To delve deeper into this lets talk about who our neighbor is. When thinking about who our neighbor is, it is easy to only look at the it from the perspective of the modern use of the word. When I say I went to the pub with my neighbor, I mean I went with the person who lives within a few blocks of me or likely someone who lives a few doors down from me. When studying the word typically used in the Old Testament, the Lexham Bible Dictionary has the word שָׁכֵן (shakhen) to typically mean Neighbor, another, friend, or someone is close proximity to you which would give us the same interpretation as previously stated. Someone who lives in close geographical location to yourself may be your neighbor or often in a religious context you neighbor is your fellow believer. This was true for the Jews as well as for us today. We often view those with similar beliefs as our neighbor. In some sense of the word, we would be correct. We ARE called to love our fellow Christians. Throughout the book of John we are commanded to love one another as Christ loved us (Jn 15:12,13:34-35) as well as elsewhere, such as 1 Peter 1:22 which calls for unfeigned love of the brothers in Christ. But now comes the foreseen, HOWEVER. Though we are indeed called to love our fellow Christians, Christ expands on the interpretation of the Hebrew word for neighbor.

Our Neighbor Expanded

Christ was known for taking the traditions of the pharisees and other Jewish leaders and turning them on their head. Passages such as Mark 7 or Matthew 15 come to mind where the pharisees confront Jesus because His disciples ate with unwashed hands, which was against the pharisees' tradition. Jesus turns their tradition around and says the proper interpretation of the laws around eating and cleanliness was actually not about what went into ones body but rather what came out in word and deed. Likewise, with loving ones neighbor, Christ takes the traditional view of the word and turns it around to mean so much more

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? (Matthew 5:43-47 ESV)

Loving ones neighbor is not just loving those who, by proximity or religious affiliation, also love you, but also those who hate you, perhaps because of your religious affiliation or convictions. In Luke 10, we see a lawyer of Israel approach Christ to test him, asking him to interpret the law. The lawyer says that the law of God can be summed up in complete love of God and love of neighbor. Christ said this was correct, but the lawyer then went on to seek to"justify himself"(vs 29) and asked who ones neighbor was. Jesus then teaches using the popular parable , The Good Samaritan. Jesus says loving your neighbor is not like the priest or the Levite who, trying to remain clean, did not help the man on the side of the road, but rather like the Samaritan who stopped and helped the man despite not knowing him and likely being his religious adversary.

To sum this up like Saint Augustine, if we love God we cannot despise His commandment to love our neighbor. For it is in our love of our neighbor that we in fact are loving God. How did Christ love the unbelieving and ignorant? He loved them by living with them and teaching them with gentleness and patience. Likewise, we should look at the world around us, at those who despise us, falsely accuse us and mistreat us, with patience and gentleness. We cannot love God and hate His commandments but those who love God will love His commandments and in His law they will delight day and night (Psalm 1:2). So my takeaway from this is, who is your enemy? Is it those with different political views, those who are apart of the the LGBTQ+ community, those of different religious convictions, or perhaps it is the neighbor who never cuts his grass, or the girl who has an unflattering tattoo. Whoever, your enemy is, think about this; just as the Samaritan loved the dying man on the side of the road, you too are to love the unclean, the unholy, the undesirable. Whether they are in your church or outside of it, you are called to love them as Christ first loved you who also was once an outsider to the kingdom, undesirable, and unholy.