Growing Young: Be a Great Neighbor


Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) explores the boundaries of love.  A lawyer quoted the Levitical command (Lev. 19:18) that we should love our neighbors.  When Jesus told him he should do that, the lawyer asked the important question, "And who is my neighbor?"  

It was a way of asking, "Whom am I supposed to love?"

Jesus responded by telling the story of the Good Samaritan.  Afterward, he asked the lawyer, "Who was a neighbor to the man who fell among robbers?"  Jesus flipped the question around, and moved neighborliness from static to active!

One of the core commitments of churches that grow young is that they strive to be great neighbors in their communities.  They know their communities and seek to be Christ's hands and feet in them.  They know their surrounding cultures, but don't fear them.  Instead, they seek to know them.  They acknowledge the good and bad in them.

If churches want to grow young, they need to see being a neighbor as an active responsibility.  They need to preach the good news of Christ, but they also need to serve their communities.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

God's Dynamite: The Battle Within

Image
"It was on fire when I lay down on it."  Robert Fulghum wrote about reading this statement in a small town newspaper.   Smoke was billowing from a second story window.  The Fire Department arrived, broke down the front door, ran up a set of stairs, and pulled a man off a burning bed.  Later, when they asked him how he got in that predicament, he said, "It was on fire when I lay down on it." Why on earth did he do that?  We don't know, but his story reveals a human truth.  We often do self-destructive things.  We testify, "People told me not to do it, but I did it anyway."  "I knew it was wrong, but I did it." The apostle Paul wrote about our human propensity to sin and self-destructive behavior in Romans 7:14-25.  Verse 15 sums up his point, "I do not understand what I do.  For what I want to do I do not do and what I hate I do."   He describes an intense inner battle.  On one side is the "flesh," his
Read more

God's Dynamite:Being in Your Right Mind

Image
What's your frame of mind today?  In this time of pandemic and shutdown, you may be worried or bored or pessimistic or lonely or depressed. Or all the above! What determines your frame of mind?  Is it your circumstances? Your will? Is your frame of mind molded by what's going on at the moment, or can you reshape it? The apostle Paul talked about our minds in Romans 8:1ff.  He said that can determine what we set our minds to.  We can focus our minds on following our lower natures or the Holy Spirit who lives inside us.   A fact that should help our frame of mind is that we're God's children.  In a sense, everyone is God's child.  God made all of us.  But in a spiritual sense, we fully become God's children when we put our faith in Christ and follow him.   We're not his children because we're better than others.  We're his children because we've put our faith in Christ and followed him.   As his children, we have status.  H
Read more

God's Dynamite: Resurrection Transformation

Image
Easter is about more than you going to heaven.  That's part of it, but not near all!  It's about your death and resurrection. In Romans 6, Paul was answering opponents.  Those opponents said that if salvation is by God's grace through faith, then you have no motivation for righteous living and good works.  Why not sin more to get more grace? Paul answered by using the image of baptism.  He said when the pastor plunged you under water, he symbolized your death in Christ.  Through faith you died on the cross with Jesus.  Your old self was a slave to sin and rebellion against God.   Paul said when the pastor raised you up from the water, he symbolized your resurrection in Christ.  Not just in the future but in the present.  In faith, you identify with Jesus' death and his resurrection.  You're raised to a new life, free from slavery to sin. So Easter is about more than personal salvation.  It's about transformation: dying to an old life and ris
Read more