Who is My Neighbor?

Why waste time discussing how we will know who our neighbor is? Just go and be “neighbor” to someone, to anyone, in need. Let the needy find his neighbor in you. Drop the talk. Cut the chatter. Take God's gifts of time, money, goods, talents, counsel, a listening ear, a helping hand . . . out there where someone can use them. To love your neighbor as yourself means simply to be a neighbor whenever and wherever you can (Lester DeKoster in The Deacons Handbook).

One cannot know beforehand whom he will meet. The immediate sight of a neighbor demands a spontaneous answer. One becomes a neighbor also to people outside one's group, nation, or race. In the encounter, the other becomes one's neighbor in the same way that one is his neighbor. The roles of participants in an encounter require modesty in both parties. Often one is inclined to think that his message is for the other, without thinking of the possibility that the other might have a message too (Kosuke Koyama in Waterbuffalo Theology).