What Does it Really Mean to Love Your Neighbor?

Loving is sometimes easier said than done. Find out who is your neighbor and what the bible says about loving them.

Many of us have heard that we are supposed to love our neighbor. What does that really mean? Who exactly are our neighbors? And how do we love them? All very good questions which we will answer in this post. To get an accurate understanding, we must consult the word of God and seek His voice as we move forward.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things...

The bible tells us you shall love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:31 ESV). Galatians 5:14 says, that the whole law is fulfilled when we love our neighbor as our self. In 1 Corinthians 10:24, it says to let no one seek his own good but the good of his neighbor. From these verses alone, it is safe to say that our neighbor is anyone who we come into contact with or have some type of connection to. This means that a "neighbor" could be my employer, my friend who lives in another state, the teacher that everyone dislikes, the kid that sits alone at lunch, the cashier at the store, the homeless man on the street, a member of my family, or even my actual next door neighbor whom I may or may not know.

There are a number of ways to accomplish loving our neighbor but we will first need to understand love. Once we understand love, we can better understand how to love our neighbor. The scriptures clearly define what love is and what love is not (refer to 1 Corinthians 13). Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:7). This allows us to grasp the severity of what it means to love. Some ways that we can show this type of love to our neighbor is by doing the following.

Clothe the less fortunate

Donate to your local secondhand shop or find a single parent in need and help them to purchase school clothes for their children. You can even take a homeless person shopping for new clothing to help them be able to endure the weather elements.

Take in someone in need

Inviting someone over for dinner or helping to pay for someone's housing needs could fall into this category. There are many people struggling and sometimes just sitting down to a meal together can completely change someone's life.

Care for the sick

There are many hospitals that actively look for volunteers. You could bring light to someone else's day and help to lighten the load of medical personnel by being an extra set of hands.

Visit with an elder

You would be amazed at how much wisdom is sitting untapped in the nursing homes and assisted living facilities across America. Set aside some time to visit an elderly person.

Feed the hungry

You can feed the hungry by volunteering at a soup kitchen or in a homeless shelter. This is a great activity to get children involved in because it allows them to serve and love others.

Loving our neighbor requires us to master a prerequisite of loving ourselves. This even applies to those who may not look or act like us. It is to love without conditions and at the highest possible level that we can reach as human beings. This is the true definition of being color-blind because ultimately, we will not see black or white, we will only see red. When we love our neighbor, we are fulfilling the law while walking in obedience to Christ. This causes us to move closer to the Lord and to grow in our relationship with Him.