Reading a verse on loving your neighbor and living it today
"Love thy neighbour as thyself": everyone knows the phrase. But who is my neighbor? And how do I love him, concretely, on a Tuesday at nine o'clock? This quest invites you to read a verse about loving your neighbor and to apply it today.
What it looks like in your day
Here is a method in three steps:
- Choose a verse. From the list below, or another that you know.
- Meditate on it for two minutes. What does it say? To whom is it addressed? What does it ask?
- Turn it into a gesture today. Just one, specific, doable.
A few verses to start with:
- Leviticus 19:18: the origin of the commandment. It also contains the prohibition on taking revenge and bearing a grudge.
- Luke 10:27: Jesus's answer to the expert in the law.
- Romans 13:8-10: love as the fulfilling of the law.
- Galatians 5:14: the whole law summed up in one word.
- 1 John 4:20-21: it is impossible to love God without loving your brother.
An example: you choose Romans 13:10, "Love worketh no ill to his neighbour." Application: "Today, I won't say anything negative about my absent colleague." Or: "I'll send a sincere note to the person with whom I had a tension."
If you are in a hurry, choose a verse and a five-minute gesture. If you are a beginner, 1 John 4:20-21 is very concrete. If you are shy, the gesture can be discreet.
What the Bible says
Love of neighbor is one of the threads running through the Bible, from the law of Moses to the apostles' letters. In Leviticus, it appears in the middle of very concrete commandments:
“Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.”
Notice that the commandment is not separated from the way we treat others: no revenge, no grudge. In John's first letter, the logic becomes very direct:
“If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.”
You can't say you love God, whom you don't see, while hating the brother you do see. And Paul sums it up:
“Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”
"Love worketh no ill to his neighbour": a negative definition that becomes a concrete criterion. Each time you ask yourself, "Does this word, this gesture do harm to someone?", you are applying this verse.
Pitfalls to avoid
Reducing love to a feeling. In the Bible, loving is first of all an act: giving, forgiving, serving. You can love someone you don't find likable.
Choosing your neighbor. Jesus, in the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37), widens the neighbor to the one everyone ignores. Don't limit the word to those who are like you.
Forgetting yourself completely. "As thyself" assumes that you respect yourself. Loving others doesn't mean sacrificing yourself without limit or letting yourself be mistreated.
Loving in theory. You can quote these verses without ever acting. Choose a specific gesture, today, and carry it out.
Judging yourself without grace. You will never love perfectly. You will learn. Jesus himself continues to train his disciples in this love.
Today, choose a verse from the list. Turn it into a gesture, and do it before tonight.