Article February 24, 1992 Issue

Loving, really loving, our neighbor

When healing is our goal, it's natural for conflict to yield to a deeper understanding of the love Jesus practiced.

Russ Gerber

Settling down to watch television one Thursday evening, I was surprised to realize that I probably knew more about the Huxtables—Bill Cosby's fictional television family—than I did about many of the real families living in my neighborhood!

It was an amusing thought at the time, but as the days went by I couldn't stop thinking about what that thought implied, quite seriously, about my genuine interest in our neighbors. It wasn't that I felt an urgent need to go door-to-door and learn all that I could about their personal lives. It was something more that concerned me.

From childhood many of us are taught the Biblical precept to love our neighbor as ourselves, and perhaps as adults some of us casually think of that as little more than good advice for children. Yet when Christ Jesus said, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," this was much more than just good advice. It was the second of the two commandments on which, Jesus said, "hang all the law and the prophets."

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