LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR?
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” It is the second greatest commandment; we all know it, believer and unbeliever alike. But how do we do it? What does it look like? We tend to think it means being nice to our immediate neighbor; picking up their mail when they are out of town, making them a meal when they are sick. Those are good things, and I would say they qualify as acts of love. But I think they are just scratching the surface of this staggeringly weighty law.
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself”, is just a summary clause near the end of the longer commandment. When we see it in context, it becomes disturbingly clear just how far short I fall of this standard. And how we violate this Heavenly command as a culture, and as a nation. Here is the complete command:
“You shall not go about as a slanderer among your people, and you are not to act against the life of your neighbor: I am the LORD. You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart. You may surly reprove your neighbor, but you shall not incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people. But you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.
That’s the full command. So, how are we doing with that one? it seems to me that much of our TV, news, social media, and radio has become one, long exercise in slander. People trade insults; they act against each other’s lives, as we hate our fellow countryman in our hearts. If I express any type of nuanced opinion, on any cultural, or political issue; I am dismissed with an epithet. I am no longer worth engaging, a Neanderthal, a Philistine. I have had to tune out of most media, and discussions that touch on political or cultural issues. Slander erupts from my lips; and hatred can easily fill my heart. For the sake of my own soul, I must no longer care. Now, I mostly listen to podcasts and read.
We hear much about tolerance today. We all like to think we re the tolerant ones. But I have an awkward question. If you are only civil with, and you can only be loving towards, people who agree with you; then what, exactly, are you being tolerant of? Difference is not in opposition to unity; difference is a prerequisite for unity. It is a prerequisite for tolerance. If we woke up tomorrow and we all looked the same; all had the same income; the same language; the same political party, within a week we would be fighting over something. Hatred comes out of our hearts, there is no one else we can blame.
The only language our political class can speak is hyperbole. Their only tone is outrage. I am politically homeless. I have been alienated by the vocal extremes of the cultural echo chamber. All their rhetoric bores me.
So, I have decided to start my own country. You are all welcome to join me. I don’t care about your lineage. I don’t care about you skin color, or your language, or your sexuality, or your shoe size. You can all come, except the shrieking bullies among us. They can stay here and yell at each other. I just need the real estate. I am hoping Australia might donate the land for my nation; they have plenty they are not using. If not, I may have to invade and conquer Delaware. It is small, but it has some nice beaches.
There will only be four laws in my country:
- No TV or internet news. If you want news you must read it, slowly, in print. As God intended.
- No Twitter. Because everyone’s initial reaction to everything is almost always wrong.
- No selfies. No reason, I just find them annoying and, hey, It’s my country.
- Once a week, in every community, there will be a mandatory public meal. Where everyone must sit and eat and fellowship with people who do not share their opinions; with people who do not believe what they believe. If any name-calling or fighting erupts at these family meals, the perpetrators shall answer to president Aragorn.
That’s it. We can make the rest up as we go. I even have a name for my new land. Since this is my idea it seems fitting to name the country after myself.
I shall call it Green Land.
Oh, wait.
Never mind.