It’s interesting when you’ve lived in a neighbourhood as long as my husband & I have because you get to know the rhythm of the community.

For example; each week day I hear our neighbour a few doors up start his engine, rev it & take off to work at 6.45am sharp without fail. An hour later I hear the school buses at the Bus Stop arriving to load chatty & giggling children. Then at 9 pm most week nights there’s the sound of a car stereo & it’s another neighbour home from work.

These distinct rhythms came to mind this morning as I was hanging the washing on the line, listening to the birds & enjoying the sunshine with various neighbourhood sounds in the background.

Reflecting upon what  both hubby & I have noticed recently, a distinct change in the rhythm & atmosphere of two of our neighbour’s households.

Love your neighbour as yourself

I started praying for these neighbours even though I don’t know what they may be facing in their lives God does.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus summed up the Ten Commandments into two?

We’ll look at the meaning of this today. But first let’s grab our cuppa’s, a treat & get comfy.

I thought I’d indulge in another one of those gf healthy treats again (that are covered in dark chocolate, lol!) with a mug of Caramel Latté. Dark Chocolate & Caramel Coffee seem to be such a wonderful combination. Don’t you think?

Setting the Scene

We have travelled back in time to around 33AD where there is a debate going on between the Pharisees, Sadducees & Jesus in the Temple, we are standing with those who are watching & listening.

You see the High Priests & elders had sent these religious leaders over to try & trap Jesus in the interpretation of the Law of Moses before the people there that day. But;

One of the teachers of the law (a Scribe) came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them (the Pharisees & Sadducees) a good answer, he asked Him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

Mark 12: 28-31 NIV

Now, if we travel further back in time to when God gave the original Ten Commandments to Moses, we see that the Hebrews were travelling together in mass after fleeing the oppression & slavery of Egypt. It’s estimated there were some 1.2 million men, women & children, that’s a lot of people travelling together!

They had lived under Egyptian slavery for four centuries, so there were some guidelines desperately needed for living & travelling together while following God through the desert to the Promised Land.

Now if you have ever lived communally or travelled in a group for any period of time you’ll know that there are those who you naturally click with & those who you don’t.

In fact there will be those who actually feel like rough sandpaper to our soul ~ very irritating indeed & to be fair they may find us similarly. It’s obvious from the accounts of that time that this was happening, as there was a lot of grumbling going on.

Making this personal

I found this when living on campus while training for the ministry in Bible College many years ago. There were fellow students & staff who we were naturally drawn to (& are still friends to this day, forty years later) but there were those who really could as we say here in Australia, ‘rub you up the wrong way’.

Regardless, we needed to remember Jesus’ directive to; 

‘Love our neighbor as ourself.’

At times this is not easy, is it? For some neighbours can be down right inconsiderate, selfish & plain annoying.

However, I don’t see any sub clauses in Jesus words that states we don’t have to love them if they’re irritating or annoying!

You see Jesus gave us this advice for a reason. And it’s actually twofold in its application; in loving our neighbours as ourselves we demonstrate God’s grace & love that’s at work within us through His Spirit. And it also demonstrates our love & obedience for God.

Now loving our neighbours may take different forms, for there are those who don’t necessarily want our love. Wanting to keep to themselves & that’s okay. For we are to respect each person’s boundaries, conversely some can be over friendly disrespecting our boundaries, privacy & family time.

As always we need to have relational boundaries just as God advised us to; ‘guard our hearts for they are the well spring of life’ (Prov 4: 23) for not all are trustworthy.

In other words while loving our neighbours, which means all people not just those who live in our neighbourhood, we need to have discernment in how that love is enacted.

While some people need to be loved from afar, others may only need an encouraging word or another to sit over a cuppa & have a chat.

While for other’s its comforting for them to just know you’re there to give a hand when needed (as a past elderly neighbour used to say to us) while they get on with their lives.

We can love while being very wise & discerning in what that love looks like.

Our particular neighbours like to keep to themselves, showing love to them is to respect their boundaries & privacy.

You see I always appreciate those who respect my boundaries & privacy but may go & quietly pray when they notice things are a little more challenging in life for me. So I love these neighbours by praying for them.

How do you love your neighbours my friend? I’d love to hear in the comments below.

Until next time,

Jennifer

You’re most welcome to join me in The Reading Nook

or in Prayer

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