Article November 4, 1996 Issue

Seeing others as God sees them

Merrill R. Moore

"Who is my neighbor?" How would you answer this question that Christ Jesus was asked? A man had asked him how to attain eternal life. Jesus turned the question back to him, inquiring what he found in the law. The Master commended the man for saying you must love God with all your heart, soul, strength, mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. But the man responded, "And who is my neighbour?" (Luke 10:29).

How do we answer? Do we decide on the basis of how another looks—young, old, pretty, handsome, ugly, with a certain skin color, a certain physique? Is our neighbor someone we see pictured in a newspaper or on television? A refugee in Bosnia or somewhere in Africa? Could our neighbor be anyone we come in contact with, anyone we think about?

And how are we to love this neighbor as ourselves?

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