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Thou Shalt Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 23, 1911

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 88, No. 47.

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Thou Shalt Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself

By Daniel H. Kress

D. H. KRESS, M. D.
To obtain the best definition of the word neighbor, we must appeal to the Bible. To the question, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.” After he had related this incident, Jesus inquired: “Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves?” The reply came, “He that showed mercy on him.” Then said Jesus, “Go, and do thou likewise.”
To love our neighbor is to be compassionate and to show mercy; it is to put ourselves in his place, and then do for him just as we would like to be done by. This is the law and the prophets. The one who lives this, fulfils the requirements of the law, and he will hear the “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” To such it will be said: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.”
To no others but this class are the words addressed, “Come, ye blessed of my Father.” To all others, no matter what their profession may have been, or how high their official position, the words are spoken: “Depart from me, ye cursed: . . . for I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.” It is evident from this that only those who engage in personal ministry here on earth, have any assurance of the hereafter. Pure religion has not changed. For the believer it is still to visit the “fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
The work of Christ is in this incident represented by the work of the good Samaritan. He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. He went about ministering to the needs of mankind, helping those who had none to help. In his ministry he gave special attention to the most needy, those who were passed by by others as hopeless cases,—the leper; the palsied man; the man born blind; the woman who had a spirit of infirmity for many years, and had spent all she possessed upon physicians and remedies, only to grow worse; the helpless man at Bethesda, who said, “Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool.”
These were the special objects of his compassion. He came to demonstrate what the grace of God could do. He delighted to bring hope to the hopeless. The Pharisees said of him, “This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.” Because he went to the needy and the degraded, he was stigmatized as “a gluttonous man, and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.” To this accusation Jesus replied, “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.”
Among the professed people of God at that time, the general feeling prevailed that their special work was not to be in behalf of the outcasts and sinners. Their burden was to call the righteous and the worthy, out of other sects, and thus make up the subjects for God’s kingdom. In this work they were very active. They compassed land and sea to make a proselyte. But Jesus said, “I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Where the greatest need existed, he found his work.
“The work that I do shall ye do also,” Jesus said to his followers. For all time the work he did was to be the chief work of his church. It is the revival of this work in the church of Christ that will distinguish her in the world as a distinct church, as Christ’s church. It is for this reason so much has been said regarding the need of going not merely into the highways and among the better classes with the last message of mercy, but also into the hedges. All classes are to be reached and helped. This work we have failed in a great measure to do, and as a result the church is lacking in physical and spiritual life. “Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge?” God does not ask the members of his church to go about with heads bowed down like a bulrush, thus giving the impression to the world that the religion of Christ deprives of real joy and happiness. Ministering to others has a reviving and refining influence on the church. “Is it such a fast that I have chosen?” he asks. “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?”
“Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am.”
Of the members of the church referred to in this chapter, it will sometime be said, “They love their neighbors as themselves.”
Loma Linda, Cal.