WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR?

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 20, 1878

WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR?

Next to knowing who the true God is, it is important for us to know who our neighbor is; for as all the law God-ward is fulfilled in loving him with all the heart, might, mind, and strength, so all the law man-ward, we are assured, is fulfilled in this: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Gal. 5:14. The question which the lawyer addressed to Christ is therefore a very natural and necessary one: “And who is my neighbor?” Luke 10:29.

An answer to this question will have to deal with three forms of inquiry; namely, 1. Is my neighbor any member of the human family? that is, is the word a general term including all mankind? Or, 2. Is my neighbor simply one who lives near me? Is the word to be restricted to include those only who are living in the vicinity of any one, the relation being governed by the location? or 3. Is my neighbor the one who is united with me in the same form of religion, the term being restricted to those who are included in certain ecclesiastical relations?

The idea attached to the word neighbor, as now generally used, is, one who resides near by; one who occupies a contiguous or near location. But this is not sufficient to guide us in our interpretation of the Scriptures; we must know in what sense they use it, before we can understand their language. We might restrict the investigation still further, and inquire simply how it is used in the New Testament, as that would determine its meaning for us; but a remark concerning its previous use may not be without some bearing upon the subject.

We do not find the word neighbor used in the Bible, applying to a time previous to the exode of Israel from Egypt, except it be in two passages in Job. But from that time to Christ, that people were, as a nation, set apart as the people of God. The relation they sustained to one another was different from that which they sustained to other people. They might use the term neighbor, therefore, as applied to each other when it would not be used to express their relation to other people. There are only three passages where other people are spoken of as their neighbors: the Gibeonites, Josh. 9:16, the Egyptians, Eze. 16:26, and the Assyrians, Eze. 23:5. But in each of these passages the word used is a different one from the word translated neighbor, in the expression “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Lev. 19:18. And in the ninth and tenth commandments of the decalogue, before one can bear false witness against another, or covet any of his possessions, he must be brought into a different relation to him from that which he sustains to the world at large by simply being a member of the human family. We cannot bear false witness against unknown dwellers on the other side of the globe, nor covet possessions which we have never seen, and of which we have no knowledge. It seems, therefore, that the Bible never uses the term neighbor in a universal sense, making all neighbors to each other, who are, and because they are, members of the human family.

But, it will be asked, does not Christ make a universal application of it, when he says, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies,” &c. Matt. 5:43, 44. We are, to be sure, to love our enemies, but for what reason? Not because they are our neighbors. Christ did not say, It hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy; but I say unto you that your enemy is your neighbor, and therefore you shall love him. While we are to love our enemies in the general sense in which God’s care is over all, the evil as well as the good, that is, so far as to relieve their thirst and hunger, and other wants when necessity requires, we apprehend that the love we are to bear to them is different in degree from that which we are to bear toward our neighbor, whom we are to love as ourselves.

Is, then, our neighbor the one who lives near us? Many instances of the use of the word in the Old Testament would at first sight suggest this idea. But they are not conclusive when we consider that at that time and in that country every one was surrounded by those who sustained to him the ecclesiastical relation already referred to, and that the term neighbor may have referred to this relation rather than to the location. It would hardly seem appropriate to make the peculiar relations, and the high duties enjoined upon us in the Bible toward our neighbors, depend upon the mere circumstance of location; making it our duty to exercise the same feeling towards, and have the same regard for, a noble, devoted child of God who lives on one side of us, and an incarnate fiend who happens to live just as near to us on the other. We cannot believe that if the devil should erect a mansion on an adjoining lot, he would thereby become our neighbor, whom we should love as ourselves. This idea certainly is not contemplated in our Lord’s illustration, in Luke 10:30–37. For the unfortunate man who fell among thieves may not have lived within a hundred miles of the good Samaritan who showed himself a neighbor to him.

What relation, then, is signified by this term? The Bible everywhere makes a difference between them that serve God, and them who do not serve him; a difference which will one day be discernible by all men. Mal. 3:18. If not, how shall we understand the words of Christ when he says that whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is his brother and sister and mother? Here he teaches that they who do the will of God, are brought into a relationship with one another which takes precedence even of the ties of nature and the bonds of blood.

Again, Paul speaks of the Gentiles as without Christ, without God, without hope, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise. But they are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Then they are no more strangers and foreigners. Eph. 2:12, 13, 19. Do they by this change sustain any different relations from what they sustained before? The highest relation these members of the household of faith, and of the body of Christ, can sustain to one another, is to love one another as themselves.

Can it then be possible that, after having thus plainly established such distinctions as these, the Lord introduces a word which levels them all to the ground, and puts all upon the same relation to one another, and that, too, the highest and most sacred relation that can exist, without regard to life or character? If this is clearly not possible, it follows that the word neighbor, in a religious sense, must not be applied outside of the distinctions above alluded to, which the Bible so clearly sustains.

In answer to the lawyer’s question, Who is my neighbor? which was asked in reference to this very law, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, Jesus introduces as an illustration, an occurrence which had probably just happened, or such as were frequently happening in that age and land. A man fell among thieves. This man was a Jew. In absence of any testimony to the contrary, we are to suppose that he was a Jew indeed, or a true child of God. A priest and a Levite passed by, saw him in his perishing condition, but offered him no assistance. These were both Jews, of the literal seed, professed people of God; but they showed by their actions that they were not really such. A Samaritan passed by, had compassion on him and performed the part of a Christian toward him. This man was not of the literal seed of Abraham, and the Jews esteemed him an enemy; yet he showed by his works that he had the heart of a true child of God, and that he was therefore such.

This pointed illustration wrung from the lawyer’s unwilling lips the unavoidable confession that the Samaritan was neighbor to him that fell among thieves, in preference to the priest and Levite, notwithstanding their great pretensions in the things of God.

This, addressed to the Jews, was a two-edged sword. It showed them that they were not the people of God by virtue of their descent from Abraham and their high profession. They could be such only by doing the works of Abraham. It showed them further that others not of their nation could come in and belong to this great neighborhood of righteousness and mercy which God has established among mankind, by doing the works which belong thereto.

“Go and do thou likewise,” is the injunction appropriately appended to this lesson. That is, whoever and wherever you are, you may become a member of the commonwealth of Israel, and of the household of faith, by showing yourself a neighbor, by Christian works, to them that are such. Therefore do it, and be no longer an alien and a foreigner.

Possibly a thought may arise as a seeming difficulty in some minds: If we are not to bear false witness against our neighbor, and our neighbors are the members of the household of faith, may we, according to the commandment, bear false witness against those who are not of this class? By no means. The decalogue forbids the highest crimes, which, in each case, include all below them of the same class. Thus the letter of the sixth commandment forbids killing; but the commandment also forbids even hating. The highest crime of false witness is

forbidden; but it includes every modification of that sin toward any person.

The principle here advocated is further illustrated by two remarkable passages of Scripture. The first is 1 Tim. 4:10, in which Christ is declared to be, “the Saviour of all men, especially of those that believe.” He is the Saviour of all men from the Adamic death; but to those that believe he secures the special salvation to eternal life. The second passage is Gal. 6:10, which reads as follows: “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.”