Who does the Bible say is My Neighbor?
Luke 10:25-37
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” 27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” 28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” 29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving himhalf dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ 36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” 37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
The Concept of Neighbor: Geographical and Spiritual
Generally, “neighbor” is understood in a geographical sense, referring to those who live near us. By this definition I can see focusing on our neighbors is indeed a wise strategy for serving God, as it starts right where we are, with those around us. As Christians, we are called to be kind, to build relationships, to earn the trust of our neighbors, and to share our faith and lives with them. Ultimately, we hope they come to know Jesus in a saving relationship, joining us in worshiping and serving God and living for His glory. More than simply becoming part of our church community, the true goal of focusing on our neighbors is for them to know Christ as their Savior. This focus on our neighbors holds several important advantages for our church’s mission, yet it also presents unique challenges.
The Benefits of Focusing on Neighbors
1. Long-Term Ministry
A significant benefit of focusing on neighbors is that it is inherently a long-term ministry. This isn’t a short-term mission that lasts a summer or even one or two years; it’s an ongoing commitment. As long as we are rooted in a place, we bear a responsibility to care for those around us. As the phrase says, “Bloom where you are planted.” So, where have we been planted? Where are our roots? The answer is our neighbors. By consistently investing in our neighbors, we become seeds of the gospel in their lives, planted in their midst for however long God has us there.
2. A Call for Every Congregation Member
Secondly, focusing on our neighbors involves the entire congregation. It’s not the sole responsibility of missionaries; each of us is called to care for and reach out to our neighbors. This mission belongs to every member, inviting us all to become missionaries to our neighbors.
3. The Challenge of True Neighborliness
Last but not least, focusing on our neighbors brings real challenges. Should we say challenges as benefits or advantages? Yes, of course, since it’s the way God grows us. Pastor Jacob once shared with me an insightful while ironic saying: “Good fences make good neighbors.” While the Apostle Paul urges us to love genuinely in Romans 12:9, society often trains us to build fences—social, emotional, and even physical boundaries. This idea of a “good fence” encourages polite words and small talk as substitutes for genuine compassion toward our neighbors’ struggles.
Living by this value, even something as intimate as a hug might fail to convey true warmth. It’s a reminder that we are sometimes only willing to go that far, keeping our deepest sympathies guarded inside of us. The Heidelberg Catechism touches on this challenge with the core essence more directly: in our sinful nature, we are not simply indifferent or ignoring, but often inclined to hate our neighbors. The real obstacle isn’t just inaction; it’s our sinful tendency even to hate our God and our neighbor.
The Challenge of Neighborly Love in a Fallen World
This sets the stage for today’s scripture. The lawyer’s question, “Who is my neighbor?” reflects a deep struggle to understand what it means to love others in a broken and complex world. This challenge of loving one’s neighbor is not confined to ancient times but resonates in our own experiences, both past and present. Growing up in China, “neighbor” was not a word that evoked warmth or trust. Instead, it carried a sense of caution, even suspicion. When I was a child, my father started an advertising business—an unusual move in a country where private companies were rare and risky—and he was excited and proud. I still remember how excited and proud the day he was granted his license. To him, his company’s seal was a symbol of accomplishment, and he even let me share his pride, in playing with it, stamping a blank page just for fun. However, when I discarded the stamped paper, my father and grandmother were horrified. They feared one of our neighbors might find it, cut out the seal, and use it to forge documents against my father, potentially causing harm to his business or even creating false evidence to implicate him in the government investigation.
Such a small action led to panic—yet it highlights how deeply ingrained mistrust was among us, how neighbors could be seen as threats rather than allies. This highlights how neighbors in a world are targets for hatred, rather than seen as fellow image bearers of God. This mistrust wasn’t unique to my experience. Throughout history, authoritarian regimes have cultivated suspicion between individuals as a means of control. During the Cold War, East Germany founded the Stasi—a state security agency—that employed neighbors, family members, and even spouses as informants. People would report on each other, creating a culture where neighbors were forced into roles as government spies rather than sources of support. A husband could discover his wife had been reporting his activities since their first day together. Children turned in parents, students turned in teachers. In this kind of environment, everyone was watching each other with suspicion, and genuine love or trust between neighbors became almost impossible.
Authoritarian regimes often manipulate human sinfulness to sustain control. They foster a society where everyone lives in fear and any expression of sympathy or any solidarity with one’s neighbor can become an act of self-harming. This distortion of human relationships reveals the brokenness that resides within us—our inclination tends not only to withhold love but to feel threatened and hatred by those around us.
Even when we escape such environments, the challenges remain. Here in America, we might be able to choose neighborhoods where our neighbors seem kinder and more supportive. I experienced this when I moved to my new neighborhood. Last winter, when we first moved to a new home, my neighbors took the initiative to help clear snow and support my family. Yet even this positive experience can feel fragile since we can see such connections are often tied to socioeconomic conditions and can be easily disrupted by changes in our lives. A job loss, a medical emergency, or an unexpected financial struggle, can easily lead a person to experience a downgrade in their family and community standing, causing once-close neighborly relationships to vanish in an instant.
Thus, the lawyer’s question remains more relevant: Who truly is my neighbor? Even in the best society, our neighborly relationships are marked by limitations and uncertainties. This challenge to love our neighbor is universal and persistent, and it confronts us with a reality: In a fallen world, we long for neighbors we can trust, depend on, and build genuine relationships with, but the effects of sin and self-interest make it a challenge, even impossible.
The Answer from Scripture – Jesus, Our True Neighbor
Thanks be to God! In the parable of the Good Samaritan, we find profound answers to the lawyer’s question: “Who is my neighbor?” The story introduces us to a traveler who has been violently attacked by robbers. This traveler, coming from Jerusalem and heading toward Jericho, likely had a respectable social status, moving between two major cities. Yet, despite his high position, he was not immune to life’s tragedies. His status and connections could not protect him from this unexpected attack, and his condition left him helpless and exposed.
What follows in the story is equally surprising. Those who might have been expected to help him—the priest and the Levite, figures of religious authority and social respect—simply pass by. These were people of influence, representing the moral and religious elite. Yet they avoided the injured man, perhaps fearing the inconvenience or the risk of becoming ceremonially unclean. The contrast could not be starker; those who appeared righteous and powerful showed no compassion, ignoring the traveler’s suffering as though it were of no consequence. But then, an unexpected character enters the scene: a Samaritan. In Jewish society, Samaritans were marginalized, often despised as disdainful and unclean due to differences in race, religion, and social status. Yet it is this Samaritan—someone from a group viewed as lowly and unworthy—who stops to help. Moved by compassion, he does not hesitate to bandage the man’s wounds, place him on his own animal, and take him to an inn, even promising to cover future expenses to ensure the man’s recovery. The Samaritan’s response is remarkable because he does not act out of duty or expectation. Instead, he acts out of genuine compassion. Unlike those of higher social standing who passed by, the Samaritan could relate to suffering; he too had likely faced rejection and hardship. Living on the fringes of society, he too may have personally experienced what it was like to be overlooked, oppressed, or in need. His compassion came not from moral superiority or obligation, but from a heart of mercy shaped by shared experiences of suffering.
In this way, the Samaritan becomes a powerful image of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Like the Samaritan, Jesus faced rejection and hardship and was no stranger to the pain of being misunderstood and marginalized. As the Samaritans were hated by the Jews, Jesus was also hated as he came to his own, and yet his own did not receive him (John 1:11) And yet, despite the injustices He endured, Jesus chose to enter our world and respond to our brokenness not with indifference or condemnation, but with love and healing. This connection between the Samaritan and Jesus highlights a vital theological truth: Jesus is our Good Samaritan, the Savior who chose not to remain distant but to join us in our pain. Though He could have come in glory, Jesus chose instead to come as one who was “despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). He didn’t come as a king seeking privilege but as a servant who would face suffering head-on.
In Philippians 2:6-8, the Apostle Paul explains that Jesus “did not consider equality with God something to be used to his advantage” but instead “emptied himself, taking on the form of a servant, being made in human likeness.” Jesus not only became human but chose the path of humility and sacrifice, enduring even death on the cross. Through His suffering, He bore our sorrows and weaknesses, entering fully into our experience of life’s pain and limitations.
Besides, Jesus did not respond to the injustices He suffered with bitterness or resentment. Instead, like the Good Samaritan, He responded with sacrificial love. He did not allow the world’s brokenness to harden Him but chose to bear it in order to transform it. Jesus, our Good Samaritan Savior, faced rejection and yet chose to meet our suffering with compassion and healing. Hebrews 4:15 reminds us that He is a high priest who “is able to empathize with our weaknesses,” having been “tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.” He does not simply rescue us from above; He walks with us through the depths, knowing our pain intimately and feeling our struggles as His own. And ultimately, He will heal us from all these sufferings, granting us new life and purpose, so that we may follow His path and overcome evil with love.
This is what makes Jesus the ultimate neighbor. Like the good Samaritan, who took upon himself the cost of the injured traveler’s healing, Jesus takes upon Himself our brokenness. He is not only an all-powerful Savior but also a compassionate companion, one who has walked the same painful paths we walk and has overcome them for us.
The Practical Answer – Living Out Jesus’ Example as Our Ultimate Neighbor
Returning to our original question, “Who is my neighbor?” Now, the answer is clear: Jesus is our ultimate neighbor. When we expose our vulnerability to Him—when we confess our sins, our weaknesses, and our brokenness—He will never respond with indifference or judgment. Unlike the world, which may ignore or even turn away from our darkness and helplessness, Jesus comes to us as the Good Samaritan, embodying humility and gentleness. He does not stand aloof from our pain; rather, He meets us with compassion, reaching out to heal and renew. His presence offers us the ultimate hope: the assurance that we are not alone in our struggles and the promise of a life transformed by His love. Just as the Samaritan’s care rescued the traveler, Jesus’ mercy brings us rebirth. When we are drawn into His love, our lives are reoriented, and we learn to love in a way that reflects Him.
Instead of being consumed by the world’s darkness, bitterness, and indifference, we become witnesses to a different way—a way marked by compassion, humility, and grace. Some may see the Good Samaritan as just a fake story, but for those who have experienced God’s grace, it is a living reality. We all are travelers, in the midst of this uncertain life, and we all were deprived by the malice of this world, but I hope we all will be saved by a Savior who found us in our brokenness, bandaged our wounds, and offered us new life. I often wonder, what would the traveler’s response have been upon regaining consciousness, realizing he had been saved. As someone who had been “brought back from the dead,” how might he have chosen to live out the rest of his days? The Gospels answered this question, by providing a great cloud of witnesses: the man freed from demons in Gerasenes, the leper who was healed, the woman spared from stoning, the prodigal son embraced by his father’s forgiveness, etc. Each of them got to answer with their lives the question, “Who saved me? Who cared for me and lifted me from despair?” ”Whose saving grace I owned to ” And so must we.
Scripture (Ephesians 2:4-5). reminds us that when we were dead in sin, Jesus saved us, giving us life through His love and sacrifice (Ephesians 2:4-5). Paul writes in Titus that once (Titus 3:3-5), like the lost, we were mired in sin, but God, in His mercy, rescued us. This is the story of us, Jesus’ salvation upon us redefines our relationship with God and transforms how we view Him—not as a distant figure, but as the Savior who humbled Himself to come close, to touch our lives, and to give Himself for us. Because we received such mercy, we are freed to let go of our pride and self-sufficiency, recognizing that God’s grace empowers us to do good, focus on our neighbors, and love them.
Jesus restored us, and more than that, He invites us to join in His work. Our transformed lives are an answer to His call, and our hearts, moved by His grace and filled with His Spirit, are redirected toward others. This is not a life we live by our strength but as ongoing feedback to the One who outpoured Himself. Our lives are not merely ours, but part of His mission, living out the love that first saved us and bearing witness to a world that desperately needs Him. This journey of transformation is not just about being saved; it is about becoming co-workers with Christ. We are called to live out His love daily, to embody His compassion, and to serve as neighbors who love as He first loved us. In doing so, we answer the question, “Who is my neighbor?” with our lives. We testify that Jesus, the ultimate Good Samaritan, has saved us and that we now live, love, and serve others through Him, for Him, and with Him. May our lives be a reflection of His mercy, drawing others to the same grace that has redeemed and called us His own.
Reflection Questions
1. How does your church’s vision of focusing on neighbors fulfill your Kingdom calling?
2. What challenges do we face in building genuine relationships with neighbors, and how can we overcome them?
3. How does the Good Samaritan parable reveal Jesus as the ultimate neighbor, impacting our mission?
4. How can we, as a church community, embody Jesus’ love and compassion in our interactions with those around us?