Neighbors

           You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. (Exodus 20:16-17)

 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:36-37)

 

          We started with God. We moved to parents. Today, we meet the third specific target of the commandments: our neighbors. Specifically, we aren’t to tell lies about them and we aren’t to covet – or yearn to possess – anything our neighbor has. While God is the foundational person within the Ten Commandments, not lying about one’s neighbor and not yearning for what someone else has may be the foundational concepts.

          If you don’t desire your neighbor’s spouse, you aren’t likely to commit adultery. If you don’t desire you neighbor’s servants, pets, vehicles, or anything your neighbor has, you won’t be as likely to give false testimony, not as likely to steal, not as likely to murder your neighbor. This could be the logic behind Jesus’s proclamations that those who lust after (yearn after, desire) a woman have committed adultery, and those who hate have committed murder. The desire precedes the action.

          Of course, the next question to be addressed is who our neighbor is. When Jesus asked who the neighbor was in the parable of the Good Samaritan, they told Him it was the one who helped the poor man. They couldn’t even bring themselves to say “the Samaritan,” but they were right, the neighbor was the one who helped, regardless of his affiliations. As one friend has put it, our neighbor is the person we trip over as we go about our day. But, that only answers the question in one direction. When we are in need, our neighbor is the one who helps us. What happens when we are not the one in need? Would not, then, our neighbor be whoever was? The person who was robbed, and therefore, the very person we want to rob of whatever it is we covet?

          And if the coveting leads to lying, adultery, theft, and murder, is it not also what leads to dishonoring parents and violating all the commands given about God?  Was it not the cause of the sin in the garden (“You shall be like God...”)?