Loving My Neighbor

Sitting around the table at a virtual gathering, the discussion turned

to the recent insanity which erupted in Washington, D.C. A person whose walk with Christ has often seemed almost palpable to me, spoke out. About those who had attacked the capital, they said, “I find it very hard to love those people.” I knew that this mirrored my own mind and others. It was a notion that I was too fearful to acknowledge or voice.

Jesus said, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself ” and then asked “who is our neighbor?” Jesus follows up with the parable of the good Samaritan where we learn that our neighbor is everyone – including our enemies. The New Testament Greek word used here is agape. This is not erotic love, not playful, romantic love, not serious, familial love, nor earnest brotherly love. Agape is a love that does not come naturally, nor exist without effort. It is a love of good will and benevolence demanded by God and thus requires an act of the will. Very often it may be uncomfortable. For me it is a difficult love.

I remembered reading C.S. Lewis and here is what he had to say about neighborly love,

“ You are told to love your neighbor as yourself. How do you love yourself ? When I look into my own mind, I find that I do not love myself by thinking myself a dear old chap or having affectionate feelings. I do not think that I love myself because I am particularly good, but just because I am myself and quite apart from my character. I might detest something which I have done. Nevertheless, I do not cease to love myself. In other words, that definite distinction that Christians make between hating sin and loving the sinner
is one that you have been making in your own case since you were born. You dislike what you have done, but you don’t cease to love yourself. ..... You may even think that you ought to go to the Police and own up and be hanged. Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person’s ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.”

I like what Lewis had to say, but as English churchman Thomas Fuller once said, “All things are difficult before they are easy.”

Barry Ousley