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So you're supposed to love your neighbor, but are you doing it wrong? We're talking about that today on the Why Do Christians podcast. Hey, welcome to the show. My name is Mark Dickey. I host the afternoon show on the Bridge Radio station. Pastor Bert and Pastor Josh are here. My neighbors. Hey,

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buddy.

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I love you guys. Wow,

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thanks. Wow,

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I love you too. You know who else loves the podcast? Who Dee? Okay, who reached out?

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Okay,

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and she had a question for the podcast. Hey DEE, I don't want to get D's question wrong, so I got to make sure I read her. I bet she's

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delightful. There, wow. D.S.

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What version of love is used in the verse "Love your neighbor as yourself, and and how is that played out? And I think where she's coming at from with this is we hear all the time in the Bible, you know, English has one word for love, but in the Bible there's agape love and there's philia,

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phileo,

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phileo, yeah. But there's also philia fish love. Yeah, come on, that was funny.

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Sorry, I I was distracted by the the the love that you were articulating. Sorry, go on.

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Yeah, so I think she's asking. You know, there's lots of versions of love. So when it comes to loving your neighbor,

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yeah,

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which one is it?

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Okay, so when Jesus quotes it, you got to remember, like the like the phrase "love your neighbor. It's quoted in the Gospels. It doesn't start there. It comes originally from Leviticus. I want to say 19. The word that we translate as love in the Gospel of Matthew, for instance, where that verse comes up, it's the Greek word agape. Right? It's a it's a self sacrificial love. So there, yeah, there are different kinds of love words in ancient Greek. Not all of them show up in the New Testament. So you you got agape, which is self-sacrificial. You've got phileo, which is brotherly but also affectionate. You've got eros, which is a romantic sexual love. That's not in the New Testament, but that's another one. You got agape. But the thing to know is when Jesus quotes it, he's quoting. Here's where it gets wild. Okay, so you have the New Testament, which is written in Greek, okay? But the the Jewish people in the New Testament, where Jesus lives, they're reading what's called the Septuagint, which is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. So he, yeah, in the Septuagint, it's going to be agape as well, but if you go back to the original Hebrew, which Jesus is new, and I mean they had rabbis who would dig into the Hebrew for sure, but just like the common tongue was Greek, right? So the the word in Leviticus 19 when we translate it as love your neighbor is the Hebrew word ahav, okay, and and what this word means, I know ahav, right? And it's a broad word. It can mean all kinds of things. the the The verse that we that we have here, like the love your neighbor as yourself, the full verse is Leviticus 1918, where it says, "Now listen to this, Marcus. Here is the part of it that that makes the story of the Good Samaritan, where this gets quoted by Jesus, make a lot more sense. But we tend not to think about the first half of that verse. So here's the first half of that verse, Leviticus 19. It says, "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. So it's not this verse which is like a command by itself. There's a there's a lead into it, which is we don't bear grudges towards evil. With that said, all right, I'm going to love, meaning generate goodwill, loyalty, relational commitment. So that's the the thought behind that word there.

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Okay, well, I guess that's the end of the episode. So that puts it pretty clearly. Then, so when it comes to loving our neighbor, what does that look like? Like, are we are we being that kind of love when it comes to our neighbors? In fact, who are our neighbors? I feel like in in the current millennium, I'll have a lot more neighbors these days because we can be anywhere we want 50 100 miles away pretty dang quick.

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Yeah, right. That's that's one of the things I think that can come up, especially if you travel quite a distance from church to go to church, or you live in one community and then work in another community. It's like which one of these people are my neighbors, and I think the Bible kind of really gives us a priority for it. And the way I think I see it in Scripture is that our first neighbor is our family. I think I think so. When when Jesus says love your neighbor as yourself, I think the first place we ought to love is those who He's placed us in. In in natural blood born or even adopted community with,

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where does that come from? Like where where in the Bible do you get that insight?

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Yeah, in First Timothy five eight, it actually says if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his own household, he has denied the faith. Now the picture is like your priority, or the the pattern is not for the people first farthest away from you, but the priority or the pattern is people in the closest proximity in relationship with you, and that you're obligated first to your own house as proof, in a sense, that you have faith because the idea I think there is that like God loves His children, cares for them, provides for them, and so then coming into the faith, then I will love my family and care for them and provide for them first before I like start having a general care for the world. And I and I think that's where we get love wrong.

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Yeah, that

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we start to immediately think of the world, because that's just easier, right?

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It's a broad target. Who doesn't challenge you?

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Exactly. Yeah.

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Or know you intimately. Yeah.

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Then I can just donate and never think about them again. Nah, man.

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Or, or I mean, I think about the the I could say pastor. I feel like that's offensive to say in front of you guys, but the pastor who spends more time with their church than with their family. Sure. Not that it's yeah. Let's

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target us. We're the ones who do that. Yeah. No. I mean, it reminds me of. Gosh, I'm gonna. I think if I say I got this from someone, it means I'm not plagiarizing. But I don't remember who I got this from. So some some person had posted a reel online. Some person in the in the sphere of the internet, a human being with with a phone posted a thing. But but the guy was talking about. He was saying like you know, we how many of us like we we think all right. I'll be kind to strangers, and this is an indicator of how loving of a person that I am, and this guy makes this point. He goes, "Well, it's easier to be kind to strangers, like right? It's easier to say thank you and please to a waitress or a teller than your immediate family who may challenge you, may catch you when you're off, may see you at your worst. Like it's easier to be like the further from you someone is, probably the easier it is to be kind to them.

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Yeah,

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and and so his point was because that's that's actually not love, that's not kindness, that's image control. Like that that's me projecting a version of me that I want a stranger to see versus those who see me authentically. And so he like his whole point was like the the true gage of how much you're loving is not how well you do by people who are outside of your household, but those who are inside of your household, right?

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Yeah,

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I would I would totally 100% agree, and I and I think what we hear in that it's not that like don't show kindness, don't show love to the world. It's just that there is a priority in that that system first to those in your immediate relationship, your family, and I think of Galatians 610, which would bring us the second priority, which says, "So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone. That's what it says, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. And so he, Paul, places this priority. Yeah, there is everyone, but particularly now, other Christians, other Christians,

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yeah,

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other believers, people you're in community with, in the church, make them your priority to care for. So everyone doesn't restrict us; it actually opens us, but especially puts a priority on the church.

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I think.

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So sorry. So I'm hearing your household is first, and elsewhere in Scripture we learn that our spouse is

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within that household even before

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the household. So it's spouse house

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spousehold. Yeah. Okay.

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Start house, and then are you expanding to church? Church,

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yeah.

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Got to take care of the mice. That's right. If they're in your

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house, somebody's got no, no. Okay, but here's can I touch? Yeah, I don't know about you guys. I've known of people over the years where it feels like sometimes they have grace for everyone but Christians, where it's like they're just looking for an opportunity to call someone a hypocrite or judgmental. Yeah, judgmental being. what have you, and some of that I want. I'm not, I'm not a sociologist. I, I wonder though, the amount of times that Christians are are portrayed in a negative light in our culture, country, whether that be TV shows, movies, whatever. Like they're they're the you know stereotypical Christian bigot or what have you, and so there's already this sour taste, and I wonder among Christians if that doesn't inform the lack of affection for other believers. That basically like, all right, it will go in as far as I prove that I'm the real thing, but if you're not, man, I'm I'm ready to blast you, or a misreading of. Jesus's rebukes of Pharisees, right? Like people love to like. Here's Jesus calling religious hypocrites. I'm going to call religious hypocrites. I just like to point out. Well, the religious hypocrites that he calls out are ones who are actively trying to stop people from believing in him, not fellow Christians who want to follow God. I think sometimes we give each other way less kindness, consideration, and love because it's not necessarily the popular or easy thing to do.

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With that said, if you're like finding yourself easily loving the world, like easily loving the stranger and not, and not your house, and then the church, your your your loving your neighbor

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is misplaced,

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misplaced, or not properly oriented, or your your priorities are off. I think is is what the scripture is saying. Is say, hey, um, show us this great love by loving the Church of Jesus Christ. Show us that you care for them as much as you care. You know, really, I mean, how much can you care for the world in that sense, right? How much can we see that? But we can see how you deal with the local body. Yeah, we can absolutely see that when they have a need, if you're there for them or not. I mean, that's that. That's really, I think, where God gives us to show the love He's talking about, the love of neighbor, and that's just very practical, very earthly.

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Yeah, I mean, I agree. I do think it's important for us to not create sort of either or scenarios, right? Like, okay, so when Jesus does the, you know, there's the question, "What do I need to do? He says, "You know, love God, love your neighbors, yourself. The person responds, "Well, I've done all that. So, who is my neighbor, right? And he proceeds to tell the story of the Good Samaritan, a Samaritan who, okay, in in the first century, Jews and Samaritans hated each other's guts for a very long history. It's like the Samaritan that story is the least likely person that you would expect to do right by the injured man, right? And so, at the end, when Jesus says, "All right, which one was a neighbor? People can't even say the Samaritan. They say the one who showed him mercy. Like they can't even get the phrase out of their mouths. So clearly, the point of that passage is kindness to the stranger and kindness to the one that you might be an enemy of, right? Like Jesus talked about. He says, "Listen, like love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you. So it's not that we're saying, "Hey, the priority is those closest to you in the sense of responsibility to care for and do well by our household and our churches. Of course, we should do those things, but that doesn't mean that we don't care for the other thing. So, like, I want to make sure that what we're not doing is creating mutual exclusive here, because to do that would actually, I think, rob the text of its intended meaning.

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Yeah, right. So there, there is the big picture of everyone whom God gives you the opportunity to do good to, to go ahead and do that kind of a good to them. Absolutely. So it seems like, um, just confusing that order would make love be wrong. Like I, I think of, I mean, I, I grew up in a family where we were at church on a regular basis, you know. But but my parents prioritized our home first, and so there was always like a love and a care for the house. And secondarily, we were at church every other day. But it was always that priority in that order. And I think whenever that order gets thrown off. Love gets confusing.

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Yeah.

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Okay. Then Josh can ask you a question. Yeah. What would you say to the person who who says, "All right, I mean, I respect that. I just don't have that much time to be part of a church community. Um. So I can appreciate that in concept. My my life, my schedule, my time is not as such that I can live that life that your parents lived with you. Like, what would you say to that?

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Wow, yeah. I mean,

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I, I, I have thoughts,

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Mark. What would you say? I

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would. I would want to ask, what are you doing? What, what does your schedule look like? I mean, there are situations where your family has a lot of debt, and or you don't have a job that can genuinely pay the bills without working 60 to 80 hours a week, and yeah, noted that makes sense. But if the reason you can't go to church is because you've got to go to lacrosse practice for all six of your kids in different spots, like you've misplaced your priorities. Yeah, in my opinion, I'm glad

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you're the one who said. And

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I would say too, going back to the story of the Good Samaritan, that love takes massive sacrifices sometimes, and you have to make a choice to go out of your way to get into a community and to care for a group of people that were not usually in your way. Like I mean, that's that's the story. The guy was traveling; he had plans, and he put those aside to to show love to a person that needed it at that time. And and that there there is nothing about that that's easy. It takes work, takes sacrifice, and so oh man, we could say that this idea of love is my. Please don't kill me, wife. My husband was spouse

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above house. Go on, then podcast. Okay.

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Well, you know, like my wife loves the, she loves the the

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HGTV.

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Yeah, right. Like, am I right? Yeah, like, wow, wavelength in this

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room.

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Just a quick, like 20 minutes. There's a little problem, and we're all solved and happy at the end. And and it's just, it, it's just not how it works. Yeah, real. Oh yeah. Yeah. How did I

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guess that? Were you just going with me? That like

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no. That it's like

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is that the channel?

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It's it's it's all those channels. It's like the HGTV's the like the the comedy. But yeah, it's like no. We that love is is sacrificial. It's considering other people more than yourself. It's it's enduring. It's hard, but I think God graces us.

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Hold on, okay, hold on. I I I agree, but I'm gonna be that guy. Okay, hold on. All right, let's see. Let's see you guys get out of this one. All right. So, okay. Hey, like love is putting somebody else before myself and Pastor Josh, less so Pastor Bert. Mark probably said it too. I wasn't paying attention, but I think he said it too. I'm just kidding. I was paying attention, Mark. You told me that I should put people by myself, and you're telling me that my household is first. So why is it wrong if I prioritize kid events and activities and stuff like that, family trips, and like I said, I don't have the space in my in my life for for other Christians, community, small groups, church, like whatever. Like why is that wrong? If I'm supposed to put my household first,

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I would I would say that you are is impeding the right word on spiritual development in that you are prioritizing play over worshiping. But I

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just want to give them the childhood I didn't have. So the

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Bible doesn't talk about that. He got spicy. You're still a great. You're still a great parent if that's where your head's at. But having fun in for a couple for a decade of your youth is not the equivalent to recognizing the creator of everything and having train your child to do the same. Under yeah, train the child in the way they should go, and when they grow old, they won't depart from it. It's like great. Well, they're not going to depart from lacrosse except when. Sorry about lacrosse players. Yeah, like we. But when your ACL goes out and you can't play lacrosse again, what are you going to have? Let's tell

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you. How about how about curling? Nobody who does curling watches this show. Let's let's pick one of these. We have

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some Canadian viewers. Hey there, a yeah. I just guessed that. That's just ice. Yeah. If there's

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one thing I can I can generally assume about people who are into curling, it's that they are easily offended. So, right. Also sarcastic. All right. Yeah,

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and I I think there's also the the broader aspect here too is that you you we can't meet every need, and you can't meet every need. But as you find yourself in certain communities, God will open up opportunities there to show love and show kindness to that group that you're in. And so, I think it's fair to say, when the opportunity comes to love your family, do that.

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Yeah.

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When it comes to love your church, do that. If you see a need and you're like, "Hey, man, I'm gifted or I'm able, don't skip over it for lacrosse, right? Right. Don't be like, "Hey, oh man, God, I would I was gonna do this amazing thing for that person, but we have baseball practice, so forget that. But here, here you are being presented with opportunities to show love, and that will mean at times to set aside your plan to take care of someone, and then go ahead and pursue. Hold

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on,

19:51  
it's

19:52  
no, no. Go ahead, Mark. My, I just

19:54  
yeah. To me, to me, it's just it's proper maintenance, you know. So, like, you can eat three bags of chips a day. That would be a wonderful fun thing. Yes, you are not taking care of yourself if you are constantly indulging on this thing. That's an extra thing, a nice thing every once in a while. But when it becomes like the pillar that you stand on, that's it's going to have problems down the road.

20:24  
Okay, guys, I'm I'm getting a all right. I'm real time on the mic, having a thought that it is possible. I'm getting completely wrong right now, so I just want to qualify this. All right. Okay.

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Okay.

20:37  
So the best kind best kind of teaching is un unresearched teaching. Yeah. can't can't go wrong with that. Yeah. All right. So really, really quick, Josh, leading question, New Testament wise, can you love God if you don't love His people? That's not the. That's not even what I haven't researched. That one I know, but I'm just just like obvious answer. Can you?

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I don't. I don't think so. No, of course not, right? Like, how

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can you say I I love God who you've not seen and hate your brother who you have seen? Right, First John.

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Cool.

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Yeah, yeah. Okay, all right. So here's the deal. That's the obvious New Testament application. There's this there's this story Jesus tells in Matthew 25, where it's his return, right? And it says, you know, like, and it's the the sheep and the goats, like, you know, like the the the king will separate the peoples of the world as shepherd separates sheep and the goats, right? And so he says to those on his right, these are these are the sheep, these are his people. He says, come, you who are blessed, my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And he says, for I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty, you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. Right?

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Yeah. Like,

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and we know this. And and like this is the this is the least of these. Right. And so like we we hear the downtrodden care for the marginalized, care for the oppressed, care for the sufferer, and I would argue we should. Okay, not against that, but look at the actual verbiage of the text. And so he said they asked, like, Lord, when did we see this stuff? You know, and he says in verse 40, and the king will answer them, truly, truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did this to me. Specifically speaking about the children of God, other believers. This necessitates connection with the body of Christ at large, right? I mean, like that, like that state. It's it's not. Hey, you did to the least of these end sentence. It's my brothers, and Jesus is abundantly clear. Like, in you know, you look at Mark three. You could look at a bunch of places where like to to believe in him is to make you his brother in the faith. Like that, it is a believer who inherits being a brother of Christ. So I I've never thought about in that way of like, man. His scope for this is how do we treat his people. That I'm not saying that that means that we don't treat people outside of the faith well. We do, but I think the priority is first of all our household. Who should be inside the faith? That's who we should be leading our household to be, and then family of God.

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Well, D, hopefully that answers your question. Actually, we answered it a while ago, and then we just kept going.

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We went to super size this episode for you, D. We

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gave you asked for one bag of chips, and we gave you d3. Well, hey, thanks for the question, and as always, you can leave questions in the comments. Thanks for watching.

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