Why Love Your Neighbor?
EVERLASTING life depends on our love of God and neighbor. That point was made during a conversation that took place nearly 2,000 years ago.
A Jewish man versed in the Mosaic Law asked Jesus Christ: “By doing what shall I inherit everlasting life?” Jesus replied: “What is written in the Law? How do you read?” Quoting the Law, the man said: “‘You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole strength and with your whole mind,’ and, ‘your neighbor as yourself.’” “You answered correctly,” said Jesus. “Keep on doing this and you will get life.”—Luke 10:25-28.
At that, Jesus’ inquirer asked: “Who really is my neighbor?” Instead of answering directly, Jesus told an illustrative story about a Jewish man who had been robbed, beaten, and left half dead. Along came two Jews—first a priest and then a Levite. Both of them observed their fellow Jew’s condition but did nothing to help him. A Samaritan came by next. Moved with pity, he dressed the wounds of the injured Jew, took him to an inn, and provided for his further care.
Jesus asked his inquirer: “Who of these three seems to you to have made himself neighbor to the man that fell among the robbers?” Clearly, it was the merciful Samaritan. Jesus thus showed that true neighbor love transcends ethnic barriers.—Luke 10:29-37.
A Lack of Neighbor Love
Today there is growing hostility between people of different ethnic groups. For instance, neo-Nazis in Germany recently threw a man to the ground and trampled him with their heavy boots, breaking nearly all his ribs. They then doused him with a highly alcoholic beverage and set him ablaze. The man who was left to die was attacked because he was thought to be a Jew. In an unrelated incident, a house near Hamburg was firebombed, burning three people of Turkish origin to death—one of them a ten-year-old girl.
In the Balkans and farther east, ethnic wars were claiming thousands of lives. Others died in clashes between people of different backgrounds in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. And in Africa, intertribal and interracial conflicts claimed the lives of still others.
Most people are appalled by such violence and would never do a thing to harm their neighbor. In fact, large demonstrations in Germany have condemned ethnic violence there. Yet, The New Encyclopædia Britannica says: “Members of nearly all the world’s cultures regard their own way of life as superior to that of even closely related neighbours.” Such views get in the way of neighbor love. Can anything be done about this, especially since Jesus said that life depends on love of God and neighbor?
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Cover: Jules Pelcog/Die Heilige Schrift
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The Good Samaritan/The Doré Bible Illustrations/Dover Publications, Inc.