Love your “neighbor” as yourself

《圣经》福音书中的一个故事深深地打动了我。爱邻居就如同爱你自己，这句话闻名遐迩。那么什么样的“邻居”才值得我们去爱？我们又该采取什么样的方式去爱？

Consider this story: you are driving along a deserted highway late one evening when you spot a stranded motorist by the side of the road. The man appeared injured, his car damaged. No one else is in sight. Do you stop to help or drive on?

Most people may not choose to stop since if they stop, other cars might strike their cars by accident. And also it might be a trap. If they dive on, another vehicle may come by in a few minutes- a police car or ambulance equipped to help.

The moral question of how a human being is supposed to behave towards others is one of the most profound and enduring of issues. It is well-known in the Bible that you should  love your neighbor as yourself. But who is your neighbor? What is the object of your love?

In the Gospel of Luke, a lawyer  asks the same question towards Jesus. Jesus put a story instead of answering the question directly. In the journey between Jerusalem and Jericho, a  robbed victim was half dead. A priest and Levite passed by ignoring the dead man. But a Good Samaritan who was regarded as the hated foreigner because of their intermarriage with Gentiles after the Assyrian conquest bandaged him, carried him to an inn and paid the innkeeper.

In the contemporary context, it seemed insane to help a stranger. In the story, the Samaritan did not stop to wonder whether he is in danger, whether the man the man lying by the road is the bait for a trap. He did not simply walk over and offer assistance. He did everything, and then some- froming touching the wounds and bathing him with oil and wine, to making an open- ended offer to pay all the bills. His behavior is, to be sure, almost imprudent and preposterous.

In the end of the story, Jesus said which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The lawyer answered without hesitation “the one who had mercy on him” Jesus’ query reminds me we should pay more attention to the subject of the love rather than the object.

The story of Good Samaritan sets an modle for us.  Love can transcend boundaries and there is no limit on love. We are supposed to imitate the Samaritan’a behavior.