Love your neighbor as yourself...Uh oh

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus was asked about commandments. In Chapter 12, Verses 30 and 31 he answers:

AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.' "The second is this, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

Uh oh. After I read this, I had a problem. For several years now, I have lived next to a family that drives me crazy.

I moved to this neighborhood for the peace and quiet. I was here first. Then this family moved in after and their priorities were different. They love noise. They have every kind of mechanized vehicle one can imagine. The father, mother and four teen children have cars, snowmobiles, ATVs, off road motorcycles. They also love fireworks, which are now legal to buy here. They never simply shut their doors, they slam them. They shout at each other. They constantly work on their machines with much noise. Ugh!

I resented them. One day, one of the boys was driving his motorbike back and forth in his yard while I was trying to gain some joy working on my flowerbeds. The bike stalled and the kid could not get it running again. The other kids were on the deck looking down. One of the other kids asked, "Is it dead?" And I yelled over, "I hope so!" They told me I was mean. They were right, but I felt justified.

Then Mark 12:30-31 hit me between the eyes. I wasn't loving them very much was I? No, I wasn't loving them at all. Now I know that I have to write them a letter and apologize for how I have acted over the years and repent before God. Well, I did repent, but I do have to write that letter.

Thinking about this also made me think of the church in the world. My view before my crash and burn was the same after and the same today. I am no better than anyone else and I take very seriously God's word that I should not look at someone's cinder in their eyes when I have a tree stuck in my own!

And yet, when the world thinks of Christians, what do they think about? What is the worlds' generalization? It's that we live to judge them and think we are better than them. Not exactly the love your neighbor thing in there.

Jesus did not say to love your Christian neighbor. He said to love your neighbor, no matter what their beliefs, lifestyles or anything else. And yet most of what you hear from the church is condemnation of peoples that are not what we feel is Godworthy. Jesus also said that by our love will they know us. We are not known for our love.

Many will argue that the press and media only focuses on the bad about Christians and not the good. That may be true in many cases. But that still means there is bad to talk about. I have often used the analogy of the cave man. If that cave man wanted to woo a wife, wouldn't he do better to make his cave as attractive as possible and make her want to come in? Isn't that a better way than hitting her on the head and dragging her in there and hoping she wouldn't be miserable once she regained consciousness?

And yet, we are often people of head banging. Our way or the highway. Our way or you are bad. Our way or we are better than you.

All humans are in the same boat. Paul writes in Romans that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. He goes on to say that there is nothing in us to make us able to enter into God's Kingdom. It is only in this Good News that Jesus died on the cross for us and rose up victorious that gives us the remission of sins and his rising from the dead becomes our hope by confessing Him and following Him as Lord and Savior, the Christ.

So if all of us humans are in the same boat, how can we be better than anyone? We need to be humble and thankful and our number one priority is to show people Jesus so that they too can be saved. We cannot be saving people by telling people how awful they are, by taking delight in calling people out for their sins. What we need to do is to present the fallen state of all humans and the Good News of the Gospel of Christ so that they can discover through the Holy Spirit that they too need to repent and accept Jesus as the Savior by confession of Him.

So yeah, this loving your neighbor thing. It's not as easy as it sounds. I have failed with my own neighbors and the church is failing in many ways. But all I can do is to walk my own walk and make it right with those noisemakers across the lawn. That is what God wants me to do and I will do it.

Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord. And He shall lift you up..