Did you know a religious person basically asked Jesus, “How do I get into heaven?” When Jesus confirmed they should love the Lord with everything and love their neighbor as themselves, they naturally wanted to know who these neighbors were. Wouldn’t you? Well, no surprise here, Jesus answered them with a story. This particular story was about a good Samaritan—someone the religious elite would have seen as neither good nor their geographical, spiritual, or relational neighbor. But Jesus wasn’t just widening their perspective of who their neighbor was. His story taught these teachers How To Neighbor.
As you know, Craig is using four weeks (you seriously won’t want to miss even one) to uncover what it really means to love our neighbors as ourselves. But he doesn’t want us to just yak about it like religious people.
Here are three ways we can start changing the way we neighbor.
- Start the How To Neighbor Bible Plan with your LifeGroup. It’s centered around five practical ideas played out in videos of real stories that will take your idea of neighboring, turn it upside down, and leave you wondering how you ever saw things differently. That’s a lot of hype, but seriously the Bible is packed with scripture about loving your neighbor. Join Pastor Craig as he hosts this 10-day study of Jesus’ two greatest commands.
- Connect to a local mission partner at your campus. Listen, the organizations we partner with are not the only way to get involved in your community. However, if your group doesn’t know where to start, we’ve vetted these organizations and wholeheartedly believe, and invest in the work they’re doing. There are all sorts of times, ways, and levels of engagement. Waiting to do something is boring at best. Ask your Community Leader how to get involved today.
- Be a regular. You live somewhere. Get to know the people next door. Your car needs gas. Pick a regular place to fill up, and get to know the workers there. You work somewhere, get haircuts, buy coffee, go grocery shopping, attend Life.Church, and probably have a hobby or two. You see where this is going? Become a regular. Get to know the people in the places where you spend your time and you’ll start to care about them. Start to care about them—especially the ones who aren’t like you—and you’ll find yourself living out Jesus’ second greatest commandment.