Day 1: Who Is My Neighbor?

If you think back a couple weeks to Day 1 of “Be the Lure; intentionally living a life worth reproducing,” we talked about our life in terms of the places we go: our work, our neighborhood, the gym, school, church, wherever your life takes you daily. Well, we keep those things for the most part separate from one another. Why though? The people you encounter throughout your daily life and its hectic schedule are your neighbors.

• You are a part of the Bride of Christ, the Church Body, and you are a disciple of His. This means that church should go with you through every place of your daily life.
• The people you encounter everyday are your neighbors.
• Your neighbors could be your encounters of opportunity, or directed encounters for you to have a mutual exchange of the heart, or a moment to share the testimony of your encouraging letter.
• You should expect and hope for moments to share with your neighbors.

I Am Your Neighbor

Pull out your phone or grab a piece of paper and write down the following:

1. Who in your neighborhood do you see and talk to the most?
2. Where do you go weekly? Think school, work, gym, grocery, coffee shop.
3. Who do you regularly see at these places?

Those three questions will answer who you can begin to engage. Now examine the following:

• On a scale of 1-10, how intentional do you live, expecting and hoping for an opportunity or direction to share your testimony with your neighbor?

Final Thoughts

You don’t have to set aside time during the week for corporate evangelism, which is not a bad thing at all. But it’s possible you may feel corporate evangelism means you shouldn’t live intentionally, and it takes you away from your natural neighborhood of work, play, and daily life.

It’s actually easier to set time aside for dedicated evangelism outside of the pattern of your daily life.

1. You don’t have to live intentionally every day.
2. You don’t have to be sensitive to God, hope or even expect encounters of opportunity or directed encounters with your neighbors daily.
3. You don’t have to put yourself out there.

The corporate fellowship may decide there are times when the church body needs to get together for institutional evangelistic efforts, and you should go. But this should never replace your individual effort to live intentionally, announce the gospel through your testimony daily, and continually engage with your neighbors, coworkers, and friends to establish fellowship and seek discipleship with them.

Biblical Devotion

Matthew 5:43-48  “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ (44)  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (45)  so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. (46)  For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? (47) And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? (48)  You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 19:16-26  And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”  (17) And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” (18)  He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, (19)  Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (20)  

Matthew 22:34-40  But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.  (35) And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. (36) “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”  (37) And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. (38)  This is the great and first commandment. (39) And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (40)  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Mark 12:28-33  And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”  (29) Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. (30) And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ (31)  The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (32)  And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him.  (33) And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.“

Luke 10:25-30  And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”  (26) He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” (27) And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”  (28)  And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” (29)  But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”  (30)  Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.

Romans 13:9-10  For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  (10) Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Romans 15:2-3  Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.  (3) For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”

1 Corinthians 10:24  Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.

Hebrews 8:6-13  But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.  (7) For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. (8) For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,  (9) not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. (10) For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  (11) And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. (12) For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” (13) In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.