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Neighbour (2)

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

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NEIGHBOUR.—To the people of Israel, God had given the commandment, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’ (Leviticus 19:18); but in their hardness of heart they had put a limit to it. They had deduced from the commandment, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour’—its converse—‘and hate thine enemy’ (Matthew 5:43); and they had made the latter as binding as the former. To a people who regarded themselves as the sole recipients of Jehovah’s favour, the limitation was not unnatural; but with the revelation of God as the universal Father, who showers His blessings equally upon all the world, just and unjust alike (Matthew 5:45), the limitation must of necessity be swept away. To make men like to God was the essential aim of the life and teaching of Jesus Christ; and as the love of God is limitless, the love of man to man must be no less. All His doctrine in reference to man’s treatment of his neighbour He summed up in the words, ‘Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect’ (Matthew 5:48). ‘Neighbour,’ then, upon our Lord’s lips becomes a term synonymous with ‘humanity.’ ‘Who is my neighbour?’ asked a scribe; and Christ made answer with the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), seeking by a picture of pure compassion to shame him of his question. ‘Dost thou ask,’ He seems to say, ‘who thy neighbour is? Set about at once to relieve the misery of every one thou meetest. Make thyself the neighbour of all who need thy help.’ It is to be noted that in the application of the parable He does not ask which of the three was, but which of the three became (γεγονέναι, Luke 10:36) neighbour unto him that fell among thieves. In the Sermon on the Mount He makes the same thing clear by direct statement—that ‘neighbour’ includes all the world of men, even those who hate and persecute us (Matthew 5:43-44).

To the old commandment, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,’ Christ gives a new and striking form in the words, ‘Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them’ (Matthew 7:12); and that the all-importance of this rule may be made plain, He adds, ‘for this is the law and the prophets.’ He thus makes a man’s own longing for love and kindness and compassion the measure of the treatment which he should extend to others. But this love and compassion must not be the outcome of any selfish motive. To do good to others that we may receive the same again, is to miss wholly love’s reward (Matthew 5:46-47 || Luke 6:32-34); for the joy of love is loving: it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). To ask to our feasts only those who can invite us in return is no manifestation of love—is but a bid for earthly recompense. To obtain God’s blessing we must invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, who can give nought in return (Luke 14:12-14). The presupposition of our Lord’s teaching, then, is this, that love is its own reward, that to lose one’s life for love’s sake is to find it (Matthew 10:39 || Matthew 16:25, Mark 8:35, Luke 9:24). The true servant of the Kingdom, therefore, must be ever ready to give unstintingly and ungrudgingly of all that he has and is; and even to those who would take from him by violence he must offer no resistance (Matthew 5:39-42).

It follows naturally that the Christian must be as ready to forgive as to give. When a brother seeks forgiveness, it must be granted gladly, even unto seventy times seven (Matthew 18:21 || Luke 17:3-4). There can be no refusal of pardon to the penitent, for so the Heavenly Father treats His erring children (cf. the parable of the Prodigal Son, Luke 15:11 ff.). To refuse to remit the offences of others means to remain unpardoned by God; for the Heavenly Father cannot forgive His children if they will not in turn forgive their brethren, who also are His children: for thus they cut themselves off from the family of God, exclude themselves from His love (Matthew 6:12; Matthew 18:35). The hatred of a brother becomes a sin which cannot be pardoned except it be repented of, except the hatred be wiped out and love restored. The universal Fatherhood of God is thus once more the basis of the argument (1 John 4:20-21; 1 John 5:1). And not only towards those who are fellow-subjects of the Kingdom is love inculcated: it must extend even to those who are our enemies and the enemies of God (Luke 6:37-38); for Christ came to seek and to save the lost, and the Christian must follow in his Master’s steps. Yet, on the other hand, forgiveness must in no case flow from mere weak benevolence which foregoes revenge for injury, and leaves the matter there. An entrance must be won for pardon into the heart of the offender before the Christian’s work is done; for pardon must be accepted as well as granted. It is not for his own but for his brother’s sake that a man must forgive; and forgiveness is spiritually useless to the offender unless he repent of his offence. To win souls for God’s Kingdom is the Christian’s noblest work, and it is to that end that his whole treatment of his neighbour must be directed (Matthew 18:15). Reproof, therefore, must not be wanting. The offence must be pointed out, and the sinner urged to amendment. In Matthew 18:15-21 (|| Luke 17:3 ff.) a course of treatment is prescribed for the impenitent. He is to be dealt with privately as a first step; if that fails, in the presence of witnesses; and as a last step the Church is to be called in to aid in effecting a reconciliation. Only when all has proved vain is he to be regarded as a heathen man and a publican. But even then love’s offices may not cease. The publican and the heathen still remain the Christian’s care, are still sharers in the love of God. Love must still strive with him, by returning good for evil, by heaping coals of fire upon his head, to win him back to God and love (Matthew 5:44, Romans 12:20). When all else has failed, there still remains the duty of prayer to God, who in His providence may find a way to penitence.

It follows from the humble self-forgetting attitude which this implies, that all loveless judgment of the weaknesses and sins of others is wholly forbidden. To judge is to usurp the prerogative of God, and to bring upon ourselves His condemnation of our lovelessness (Matthew 7:1-2). Yet men are not to close their eyes to the characters of those about them. They must certainly seek to find the best that is in every man, and to draw it to the light even as Christ did; but to treat the notoriously wicked man as if he were good and upright is to make him a cause of offence to others, and at the same time to tempt the man himself to greater wickedness. To act thus is to cast pearls before swine (Matthew 7:6). There is no more grievous sin against love than to disregard or to play upon the weaknesses of others. We must Know others’ weaknesses that we may avoid offending them and causing them to stumble. But that we may be able to do this—to help the weak brother and to save him from his defects—it is first needful that we should be conscious of our own. If our own eyes are blinded by the beam of self-righteousness and pride, we cannot see clearly to cast out the mote out of our brother’s eye (Matthew 7:3-5 || Luke 6:41 || Galatians 6:1). In the very strongest terms our Lord warns against the giving of offence to others, even to the least. It were better, He says, to suffer the most miserable death than so to endanger the salvation of another, and sin against God’s love (Matthew 18:6-7; Matthew 18:10). In 1 Corinthians 8 St. Paul treats of the matter in reference to a particular instance, pointing out that even Christian liberty must be willingly laid aside if it in any way tends to hurt the conscience of a weaker brother. Love for souls is so absolutely the law of the Christian life that it makes right wrong and wrong right. Charity is the greatest virtue of all, so that the want of it makes every other virtue worthless (1 Corinthians 13).

To summarize the doctrine, the revelation of the new relationship between God and man, and the new law which rests thereon, make of love the highest principle in life, and make the love of God and the love of man one and the same; and since love is the divinest element in human nature, it must be love’s object to beget and to increase love in others. Hence towards all who are our brethren in the Lord we must be humble and meek and forgiving, ‘in honour preferring one another’ (Romans 12:10), seeking greatness not in dominion but in service (Matthew 20:26-27 || Luke 22:26); for it is ever the over-estimate of self that takes offence and causes hate (Mark 7:22); and to the sinner and the unbeliever who are Ignorant of love, there is but the greater need to make love manifest by unwearying self-sacrifice and unceasing kindness; for so the evil in the other’s heart will be overcome, and the Divine germ of love within him will be fanned into a living flame, and he also will become a true son of God (Matthew 5:38-48 || Luke 6:28-31 || Romans 12:19-21). It is those whose whole lives make for peace—the peace that springs not from indifference but from love—who shall be called the children of God (Matthew 5:9).

Literature.—Works on NT Theol. by Beyschiag and by Weiss; the Comm. on the NT, and works on the Parables; J. H. Thom, Laws of Life after the Mind of Christ, 330; M. Creighton, The Mind of St. Peter, 38.

W. J. S. Miller.