He’s Still Your Neighbor Even If You don’t Know Him

Proverbs 3:29 – Do not plan evil against you neighbor who dwells trustingly beside you.

Something about neighbors, if we don’t really know them, we don’t feel as much of a compulsion to care about them. We don’t really know what they do, what’s going on in their lives, or what they think about anything, so they’re not really a thought in our minds with the exception of when we see them going in and out of their house. Have you ever had that neighbor who rarely cut their grass and made the neighborhood look bad because their yard always needed cutting? Or maybe the neighbor who let their dog run free? When we don’t know our neighbors, it’s easy to allow negative thoughts to enter our minds and to secretly wish something bad upon them.

Likewise, the people we work with can often not get the same attention we give friends. Often times there’s a work mode in us that is cordial with people but doesn’t go deep enough to establish a genuine care or concern for them. Maybe their personality gets on your nerves a little bit and they don’t really seem to be a good worker, so quietly you wish they’d end up leaving somehow. Maybe you know they make a little more money than you or have a higher position, and you believe you’re more gifted and able than they are secretly wishing they’d do something wrong and get fired.

As believers we have to fight the impulse to have thoughts that dishonor God. We’ve got to come against those thoughts and remind ourselves why God has us where we are and how He feels about people. My neighbors are my neighbors for a heavenly purpose, and I must be open and willing to obey God to follow through to see that purpose fulfilled. My neighbor is not just the guy who lets his dog run free, he’s a man loved by God who needs to know about what God has made available to him. Additionally, my co-worker is not just the person who’s overpaid and under qualified, they are a person that God has placed in my life that I might show and share the love of Christ with them.

Just because we don’t have a personal connection with someone does not mean we lack responsibility with them as ambassadors of the Kingdom. For us to entertain bad thoughts towards them is to set us at odds with God Himself. Look and pray for the open door to establish that personal connection and to bring them one step closer to knowing God.