Ashley and I were sitting on the couch – I was studying for school, she was doing a Sudoku, and our dog was peacefully lying on the floor chewing a bone – when we heard a knock on the door of our first apartment. Taking a quick look through the peep hole, I opened the door.
“Could you guys please keep it down?” our visibly perturbed downstairs neighbor, who shall remain nameless, said. (She has to remain nameless: she never actually introduced herself.)
As visibly confused as she was perturbed, I looked around the room and confessed I had no idea what she was talking about. (Granted, our dog was rowdier at this point; but, in fairness to him, someone had just knocked on our door.)
“Well, you guys are just always so loud. Please keep it down.” Thus ended our first and last interaction with that downstairs neighbor.
Isn’t this what many of us think of when we hear “neighbor” today? “Neighbor” is that nameless person who doesn’t cut his grass or plays her music too loud. Our interactions are limited to passing “hellos” or angrily airing our grievances, with little in-between.
On numerous occasions, Jesus called His followers to the much higher standard of “loving your neighbor as yourself”. If the only time we interact with someone is to complain, something has gone wrong! Sure, we will have conflict that needs resolved, and there are appropriately loving ways to speak up. Yet, it should always be within the context of relationship. We genuinely care about that person: Jesus died for them! We make an effort to understand them, wanting what’s best for them and not just ourselves.
The Apostle Paul said it this way: “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another” (Galatians 5:13-15).
Don’t be a stranger to the people around you. Don’t be that person that everyone dreads to see coming because you only ever have something negative to say. You follow Jesus, and that means you really work hard at loving your neighbor.