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When I grew up here in America, the word “neighbor” brought to my mind the houses to the left and right of mine, the ones across the street, and those throughout my family’s neighborhood. In other words, the word “neighbor” referred to those people who lived in my neighborhood. I brought this way of thinking to my Bible reading as an adult and eventually realized I needed to think about the word somewhat differently.
It’s not that my definition was wrong; it’s that it was too limiting for a Bible reader. That is, my childhood perception of neighbor excluded the people living under my own roof – my family. It also excluded people I encountered while away from my neighborhood. My understanding of “neighbor” was being stretched by the Bible. And that stretching was good for me.
The etymology of the word neighbor reveals that the “neigh” part comes from a word meaning “near.” The “bor” part comes from a word meaning “dweller” or “inhabitant.” I quickly found it useful to think of the word meaning “someone who lived nearby” or, more simply, “someone who was nearby” – a “near one.”
At this point, I came to see that God’s meaning for “neighbor” in the commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” was that our obedience to this commandment started from where we were and the people closest to us. The story of the Good Samaritan shows that a neighbor may actually be a stranger rather than someone who lives in our zip code. The priest, the Levite, and the Good Samaritan were all on the road to Jericho, and all passed “near” the man whom the robbers left half dead. Jesus expected all of them to help their “neighbor” whom they did not know and surely did not pay taxes in any of their respective zip codes. But he was “near” them at their time of need, and so Jesus wanted them to help the troubled man.
I also came to realize that the Good Samaritan wouldn’t have been good if he only showed compassion while on the road. He needed to love his wife and children, too. And since he was around them more and knew them better, he was in a position to do a lot more for them that he could for that poor guy on the road to Jericho.
So, I came to see that there had been nothing wrong with my thinking that “neighbor” referred to anyone living in my neighborhood, but it also included the people who lived under my own roof, and even those who lived beyond my neighborhood in the broader community. And it could even include someone from far away if circumstances caused us to be in proximity to one another.
The point of all this is that God does not want us to live in the style of social justice warriors who are constantly yammering for one set of strangers to do good deeds for another set of strangers. Neither does He require that we go to the ends of the earth to find the person in the greatest possible need. On the contrary, He just wants us to help those whose paths cross ours – whether frequently or infrequently.
Your neighbor is the near one. And the nearer they are, the greater your duty to them. Thus the old timers who said, “Charity begins at home” were on to something. They didn’t say it ends at home, but they did say it begins there. Thus the word “neighbor” means “near one” across a spectrum of nearness…and that nearness can vary with circumstances. God will use others to care for people in need outside our reach; let us care for people in need within our reach. That is, let us “love our near ones” – and the nearer they are, the more we should love them.
Further to the broader point of this article, notice that in 1 John 4:21 that the word “brother” is substituted for “neighbor.” In other words, this is further evidence that the word neighbor as used in the Bible should applied expansively, not restrictively.
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