How Do We Love Our Neighbors if We Do Not Even Know Their Names

Jesus told us to love our neighbors the way we love ourselves (Mark 12:31).  How do we do that when many times we do not even know our neighbor's names?  

I think about my neighbors a lot, especially when I am outdoors  

Sometimes I think, wouldn’t it be nice if I mowed my neighbor’s yard?  Then I think, yeah, when I get done mowing my yard then I will mow his yard.  The problem is by the time I am finished with my yard, this old body is too tired to mow an extra yard. 

We call these kinds of thoughts “good intentions” and the road to both heaven and hell is paved with them.  One day I will stand before Jesus (2nd Corinthians 5:10) and my good intentions are going to burn up.  God calls these things “wood, hay and stubble (1st Corinthians 3:12 & 13) .”  

I can see myself standing in front of Jesus in Heaven and He says, “David, it’s good to see you.  Show Me what you’ve got?”  So I share with Jesus the stuff I’ve done and sadly most of it burns up right in front of me and then Jesus says, “Do you have anything else?”  

I dig around in my pockets and pull out a couple of coins, a button that fell off my shirt earlier in the day, a plastic bag for picking up after my dog on walks and my iPhone.  Pretty much nothing right?  The good news in that story is I can change that today by getting busy about God’s business! 

In Paul’s first letter to Corinth he wrote, “Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor (1st Corinthians 10:24).” 

I think this means I have to mow my neighbor’s yard first.  That’s a counter-cultural idea, isn’t it?  If I am going to be successful at loving my neighbor I have to put other things ahead of myself including my neighbor, Jesus and His precepts.  

What I have to do is stop patting myself on the back for just having the idea of loving my neighbor and take action. Love is only known by its actions.

For more information on neighboring, visit David Burton’s blog at www.we-are-neighbors.blogspot.com.