Loving Neighbor

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. — Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 22:39

When asked to name the greatest commandment, Jesus gave two: love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself. Then He added: “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:40). The entire moral life hangs on love.

The Hebrew word for “neighbor” in Leviticus 19:18 is re’a (רֵעַ) — a companion, fellow, or associate. In the Greek Septuagint and the New Testament, this becomes plesion (πλησίον), literally “the one nearby.” Jesus’s parable of the Good Samaritan radically expands both terms: the neighbor is not limited to kinsman or countryman but includes anyone whose need places a claim on your compassion.

Who Is My Neighbor?

A lawyer once put this question to Jesus, hoping to limit his obligations. Jesus answered with the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37):

A man is beaten and left for dead on the road to Jericho
A priest and a Levite — religious professionals — pass by on the other side
A Samaritan — despised by the Jewish audience — stops, binds his wounds, carries him to an inn, and pays for his care

Jesus then reverses the question: “Which of these three proved to be a neighbor?” The answer is inescapable — the one who showed mercy. The neighbor is not defined by proximity, ethnicity, or social standing. The neighbor is whoever stands before you in need, and being a neighbor means showing mercy without calculation.

Agape: The Shape of Christian Love

The New Testament’s primary word for the love Christians are called to practice is agape (ἀγάπη). Unlike eros (ἔρως, romantic desire) or philia (φιλία, friendship), agape is:

Self-giving: It seeks the good of the other at cost to oneself
Unconditional: It does not depend on the worthiness of the recipient
Active: It is expressed in deeds, not merely feelings
Rooted in God: “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19)

Paul’s famous description in 1 Corinthians 13 paints the portrait: love is patient, kind, not envious or boastful, not arrogant or rude. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. This is not sentimental — it is demanding, costly, and sustained only by grace.

Love of Enemies

Jesus pushed the command to love beyond every comfortable boundary:

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. — Matthew 5:44–45

This teaching was revolutionary in the ancient world and remains so today. To love an enemy is to refuse the cycle of retaliation and to trust that God alone is the final judge. The early church took this command seriously — many church fathers pointed to enemy-love as the distinguishing mark of Christians.

Paul echoes the teaching: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink… Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:20–21).

Hospitality: Love of the Stranger

The New Testament commends philoxenia (φιλοξενία) — literally, love of the stranger. This is the opposite of xenophobia. In the ancient Mediterranean world, hospitality was a sacred duty, and the early church made it a defining practice:

“Show hospitality to one another without grumbling” (1 Peter 4:9)
“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Hebrews 13:2)
The early church opened its homes for worship, sheltered travelers, and cared for the sick during plagues — often at great personal risk

Hospitality is more than a social nicety. It is a theological statement: because God welcomed us when we were strangers and aliens (Ephesians 2:12–13), we welcome others.

Bearing One Another’s Burdens

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. — Galatians 6:2

The “law of Christ” is the law of love, and it is fulfilled in the mundane, unglamorous work of sharing each other’s weight. This includes:

Sitting with the grieving rather than offering easy answers
Providing material help in times of crisis
Speaking truth to a brother or sister caught in sin — gently (Galatians 6:1)
Praying for one another with persistence and faith (James 5:16)

Christian community is not a gathering of self-sufficient individuals. It is a body where “if one member suffers, all suffer together” (1 Corinthians 12:26).

The “One Another” Commands

The New Testament contains dozens of allelon (ἀλλήλων) — “one another” — commands that give concrete shape to neighbor-love within the church:

Love one another (John 13:34)
Accept one another (Romans 15:7)
Serve one another (Galatians 5:13)
Forgive one another (Ephesians 4:32)
Encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
Bear with one another (Colossians 3:13)
Be kind to one another (Ephesians 4:32)
Confess sins to one another (James 5:16)
Pray for one another (James 5:16)

These commands assume that love is not abstract. It is practiced in specific, sometimes difficult, always intentional ways within the community of faith — and from there, it overflows to the world.

Living It Out

Let the Samaritan’s example shatter every excuse for indifference
Practice agape — costly, active, unconditional love — as a daily discipline
Welcome strangers as though welcoming Christ Himself
Enter into the suffering of others rather than standing at a distance
Cultivate the “one another” habits that make the Church a living witness to the love of God

“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” — John 13:35