Loving your neighbor as yourself is, for good reason, a well-known biblical charge.
But we often ask, as does the lawyer interrogating Jesus in the passage where this mandate appears: Who is my neighbor?
Our neighbor is the person right in front of us. This is made obvious by Jesus’ response to the lawyer: He tells the parable of the Good Samaritan, the story of a man who responded lovingly and diligently when presented with the needs of another—even though the man he helped was, by the world’s standards, his enemy.
Of course, saving people who are wounded and dying on the side of the road is a rare occurrence. Loving our neighbor often begins just by getting to know them. After all, you can’t love someone you have never met.
This highlights the tricky part of loving your neighbor today. Our communities are dense, complicated systems far beyond our control. Our lives are busy, and often distracted. People move a dozen times on average over the course of their lives.
It would be easy to spend our days without even learning the names of the people who live right next door to us—and three-quarters of Americans today do just that.
Yet we crave connection. We need each other. And recent research suggests that most Christians are aware of this need, and are at least theoretically eager to meet it: Approximately three-quarters of Christians who read the Bible regularly say being a good neighbor is important or “very” important.
God made us to live together, for each other and with each other as his sons and daughters. And once we connect with each other, a relationship forms. We’ve been introduced, at last, to our neighbor.
For example, two boys from an active military family living in South Carolina attended a WinShape community camp this summer. They haven’t lived in their new hometown even a full year yet, and they might not be there next summer to return to the same camp.
But when their mother wrote to us after their week at camp had concluded, she recalled getting to meet the counselors who’d made the biggest impression on her sons.
The counselors, this loving mom and her two sons got to sit down together for a few moments after lunch on the final day of camp. They met, talked and connected after just a brief time together. And she’s praying for them now. The counselors have gained a local friend and advocate, just as much as her sons did.
As is the case with most of our community camps, this camp was hosted by a local church. In the past, this family has had to re-establish their church home every single time they moved, but this time, camp helped cement powerful relationships. They were known and welcomed. They had a home, and that home had neighbors.
