Thinking more about my neighbor

by Gary Bowman on January 19th, 2012

In loving God with everything in me (Jesus' first command), I discover the freedom and ability to love my neighbors as I love myself (His second command), Mark 12.28-34.

As I open myself to Him above all, I (surprisingly?) discover He fills my heart, my mind, my soul, my body with more than my self-love could have ever imagined. Satisfied. "More than enough," we sing. 

My happiness really is His business. The more I am satisfied in Him, the happier I am (the first command). The happier I am, the less I am preoccupied with scrambling for more for me, and freed to search for the happiness of people near and far (the second command, enabled by the first!). 

As I slowly turn my heart toward God for Him to fill and satisfy, I begin to think more about my neighbor.

I was reading Clives Staples Lewis (the author of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) this Christmas. He's an old theologian, in fact he went home to be with his Savior in 1963. So he's an old dude. But as he reminds us, old truths, old ideas are not by mere age inferior. "The square of the hypotenuse has not gone moldy by continuing to equal the sum of the squares of the other two sides." (Christian Reflections)

CS Lewis

So as I was reading Lewis, and watching people--at Starbucks, at Ralphs, on the road and in my house--this dead theologian reminded me of another reason to live the first command so I could begin to keep the second:

Every person I encounter, every person everywhere will live forever. Basking in the glory of God in our new resurrection bodies in the better than hoped for new heavens and new earth. (John 3.16, 14.1-6, 2 Corinthians 5.1-10, etc.) Or, as Jude describes, like wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; lost, wandering stars, on their way to the blackest darkness reserved for them forever. (Jude 13, Daniel 2.12, 2 Thessalonians 2.19, etc.)

And as Lewis the sage reminded me, "All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations."

His words have not grown stagnant with years, nor have our Lord's:

"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.

All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations.

It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.

There are no ordinary people.

You have never talked to a mere mortal.

Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat.

But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.

This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn.

We must play.

But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.

And our charity must be real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies."

(The Weight of Glory)

So the teacher, the person down the street, the homeless man you serve a meal to, those other parents, the single mom and her child, that person in your growth group, the villager in Belize or India, your spouse and kids, your love for them must be costly.

Love God with everything in you. Let Him fill you with happiness so you will be freed and empowered to love your neighbor as yourself. For you are all day long, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of those awful, or awesome destinations.

 

You can listen to or download the podcast of our message on The Impossible Command here. 

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