Love Your Neighbor

So we've had some major work done on our house and it ended up that our entire yard was torn up. Currently, we have virtually no grass and I don't think we've thought about our bushes in months. Our yard is basically a big mess and we haven't had time or energy to put it back together yet.

Well, I came home from work yesterday and our next door neighbor was in the front yard trimming our bushes. She stayed several hours, tidying up our front yard and advising us on our other plants. And in the past she's mowed our lawn countless times and she and her husband have been incredibly kind to us in the two years that we've lived here.

In fact, they have been the perfect example of the neighborly love that Christ commanded...except for one thing: They're not believers.

Now, how many of you Christians out there would drop what you were doing to help your next door neighbor with yard work? How many of you would do innumerable acts of kindness with no desire of being repaid?

"Well, I'm busy."

Admit it, you just said that. And I get it. I'm busy too. I have work, school, and church to balance on top of any social life that I still have. I barely have time to help in our own yard, much less someone else's.

But we are seriously missing the mark here. Jesus commanded us to love God and to love our neighbors. Of course He meant that we are to love anyone in our path, but I imagine that He would emphasize that our geographic neighbors are a great place to start.

And yet here we are, being served by our neighbors who don't love Jesus.

This is not a post about how it's better to be a nice non-believer than to be a mean Christian. Please don't take that away from this.

This post is about why I even had to say that! Brothers and sisters, this is one of those "You only had one job" moments! "They will know we are Christians by our love." Where is our love?

Don't get me wrong: it's great to go on mission trips or to go to the next town and do a Bible camp or to serve the Body in church. But if we are not loving the people around us, we are failing miserably! We get so wrapped up in our own drama and pharisaic ideas of love and service that we completely miss the heart of the issue.

The world doesn't need your theology. It doesn't need your fancy PowerPoints. It doesn't need your catchy worship songs. It doesn't even need your outreach materials and service projects.

The world needs to see the love of Christ reflected through us.

There's a song by Casting Crowns called "If We Are The Body" and it shows how we as Christians are so caught up in our own "goodness" that we neglect loving those who don't fit the "Christian" profile. It points out that, if we are the hands and feet of Jesus, then we should be doing what Jesus would have been doing.

I know it isn't practical and it isn't easy. But we have a duty to reach the lost world, and we're not going to reach them with projects and programs.

We'll reach them by our love.