A Good Neighbor

April 12

Deuteronomy 21-23

Psalm 44:17-26

Proverbs 11:1-3

Luke 9:37-62

A Good Neighbor

“You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep straying away and ignore them; you shall certainly bring them back to your brother….Thus you shall do with his donkey, and you shall do likewise with his garment, and you shall do likewise with anything lost by your brother, which he has lost and you have found.  You are not allowed to ignore them.  You shall see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down on the way and ignore them; you shall certainly help him to raise them up….When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you will not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone falls from it.”  Deuteronomy 22:1, 3-4, 8 LSB

 Deuteronomy 22 contains instructions on various topics, but there is a unifying theme.  God expects His people to be good neighbors.  God is loving and compassionate and wants His followers to be loving and compassionate to others.  Selfishness and carelessness have no place in the life of a believer.  We have a responsibility to those in our community.  Throughout the Bible, God instructs His followers to go the extra mile, treat others the way you would want them to treat you, do the right thing, get involved.  If you find something, don’t keep it for yourself.  “Finders keepers losers weepers” is not found in the Bible.  This passage tells us not only to not keep it, but also not to ignore it and walk away.  We are to do everything we can to find the owner and return it.  This takes time and effort.  It would be easy to skim over this section of Scripture and think that it contains instructions for the children of Israel and doesn’t apply to us, but that isn’t true.  This passage give us insight into the heart of our God.  He cares about people and He wants us to care about others, too.  He wants us to invest in the lives of the people around us.  This is messy and complicated and requires putting aside our own agendas and priorities to help others.  It is part of the whole “denying ourselves, taking up our cross daily and following Him” thing. 

God’s instruction goes beyond not doing anything to intentionally harm others.  It says we cannot be indifferent to others.  We cannot turn a blind eye to those in need.  And it says we need to take steps to protect others from harm.  The instruction to make a parapet on the roof so that someone doesn’t fall off and get hurt means that we need to try to anticipate risks and do what we can to mitigate them.  In our culture we do this because we don’t want to get sued.  God is telling them to do this because we care about other people and want to protect them, not to protect ourselves from liability.  “Doing nothing from selfish ambition or vain glory, but with humility of mind regarding one another as more important than yourselves, not merely looking out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.”  Philippians 2:3-4 LSB  Ask God to open your eyes to the needs of those around you and to give you the compassionate heart to be a good neighbor.