Who is my neighbour? Luke 10:29 NKJV

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Is it your bestie?

The old lady that lives down the road?

The person you see everyday on the bus?

How about the homeless guy in your town centre?

The outcast at your school? The odd job in the office?

Or what about the Syrian refugee, forced to flee their country to find safety on our shores?

Today’s verse is pretty well known. It’s taken from the story of The Good Samaritan, arguably one of the most famous stories in the Bible. If you’ve forgotten it, you can refresh those brain cells in Luke 10:25-37.

We’re all guilty of being like the priest or the Levite. It’s much easier to turn a blind eye and carry on doing our own thing, justifying in our heads that we’re too busy or that someone else will help out.

But seriously, how epic would it be if we all had that good Samaritan moment?!

Jesus was big on that. In fact, he not only tells us to be like that, he showed us how to be like that.

The truth is all the people mentioned earlier are our neighbours, because we all belong to each other.

And the sooner we recognise who our neighbour is, the sooner we can start living alongside them lovingly.

Because to love our neighbour is to welcome someone into our community with open arms. To love our neighbour is to reserve judgement and get to know someone without listening to gossip. To love our neighbour is to appreciate and understand their ethnicity, race, faith and social background, or whatever makes them different from us. To love our neighbour is to celebrate diversity! To love our neighbour is to practice justice.

We all have the chance to be good Samaritans.

So, who is your neighbour?