Baby Steps To Loving Your Neighbor.

It isn’t as complicated as it sounds.

Jesus talks about loving our neighbor, as we love our own self. 

As a young girl, sitting in Sunday school with bright blonde pigtails, and knobby knees, loving my neighbor seemed simple enough. I was not yet old enough to really dislike myself, so loving someone as I loved myself seemed very straightforward. As for loving my neighbor specifically, the girl who sat next to me lived on a farm on which I loved to play, and so loving her was not so hard either.

As I sit here contemplating the world we live in, the horrible things we are doing to each other, the ways we have complicated so much, I am looking to my seven year old self for wisdom.

What does it really mean to love our neighbor? Some might say that Jesus did not mean this literally, but as a general rule to love all others. But why does he use the word neighbor? Why not just say, “love everyone”? 

I won’t bother defining the word “neighbor”, I think we all get the gist of it. But I think  that Jesus uses the word “neighbor” here very intentionally. That is where it all starts. How can I love the world If I can’t even love the person right next to me? How can I care for orphans, If I have no patience for the children in my classroom. How can I love those in need, If I can’t love my own family well.

It seems as though Jesus has not misspoken here, or hidden some kind of in depth meaning in these words. He means it literally, because he knows how we are. We need those baby steps. “Go love your neighbor,” he says, “and then we can work on loving the world”. Smile at the lady  ringing you up at the grocery store. Pay for the couple’s dinner in the booth next to yours. Serve in the nursery week after week at church. Bring cookies to your neighbor. Mow the lawn of a friend.

Baby steps.

Jesus knows we are weak in love. And so He meets us where we are and asks us just that we love our neighbor.

Love the person closest to you in each moment.

This is not to say that loving others is always an easy task, or even that you have to like the person closest to you in each moment. But love them. Treat them with kindness, respect, patience.

How different would our world be if we all did our best to live this out?

I challenge you in every moment; turn to your neighbor and love them.