Not a Question of Convenience – The Kingdom Curriculum XVI (2)

Not a Question of Convenience

The second great commandment

“And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:39

“Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” Luke 10:36, 37

Go Like Jesus Did

Perhaps most of us will be willing to show some love to our neighbors when they come to us with a need. A colleague asks you for help on a project, a neighbor wants to borrow your mower, a friend seeks your advice on some personal matter–sure, let them come to us and we’ll be quite ready to help in any way we can.

But if loving our neighbors, like loving God, involves seeking them, shouldn’t we be a little more “proactive” in discovering their needs? But that would require going out of our way, running the risk of prying, getting in someone’s space without being invited. In short, that wouldn’t be convenient, would it?

There was nothing convenient about Jesus’ coming among us for our redemption. He emptied Himself, Paul tells us, laying aside certain divine prerogatives and the pleasures of the Father’s immediate presence (Phil. 2:5-11). He gave up place, privilege, and primacy to become a lowly servant, and, in that role, to die for our sins. We were the needy neighbors, and He didn’t wait around for us to come seeking Him. Of course, there was the risk that we would reject Him; but the rewards of coming onto Jesus’ radar are known and cherished by all who have come to know Him as Savior and Lord. It wasn’t convenient for Jesus to come seeking us, and it won’t always be convenient for us to seek our neighbors, either.

There is a note of real urgency in Jesus’ “Go” to that inquirer. As we go out the door each morning, do we see ourselves as being on a mission of love, to reach out to and care for the people we meet in the way? No, it’s not convenient to go out of our way to reach out to others. And, yes, we’re probably going to have to take up some kind of “servant” posture in order to do any good. But Jesus is not commanding us to do anything that He Himself has not already first endured, and He promises to be with us as we go, even to the end of the age (Mt. 28:20). Besides, He has given us His Law to guide us, so we should be able to stay on a holy and righteous and good path as we reach out to our neighbors in love.

Order your copy of The Law of God and The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.MyParuchia.com, point your browser to “Publications,” then click on the drop-down option, “Waxed Tablet Publications.”

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore.

T.M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.