The Lord’s Prayer - Part Two • Devotion 1: Loving Neighbors
Pastor John Carter
We are looking at prayer in a very in-depth way. We saw how Jesus taught us to approach God. Last week, we focused on how we are to, first and foremost, love God. This commandment is given to us throughout all of Scripture, both the Old and New Testaments. It is not a new concept. It has been around from the very beginning. Another not-so-new concept is the idea of loving others as ourselves. This is also known as the second greatest commandment and has been taught throughout Scripture from the very beginning.
Leviticus 19:18 says, “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”
James 2:8 repeats the concept, “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing well.”
Those are just a few of the examples that teach us this idea of loving our neighbor as ourselves. There are many more, and in fact, Matthew seems to carry quite a few repetitions of this passage in Leviticus. As we continue to break down the example of prayer that Jesus lays out for us in Matthew chapter 6, we will see Jesus using this aspect of the greatest commandments as the main theme of the prayer. Last week, we looked at the importance of loving the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind through our prayer. This week, we are going to examine the idea of loving our neighbor as ourselves through our prayer life.
Matthew 6:11-13 says, “Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” As we walk through each line of this model prayer, we will hopefully see the application of loving our neighbor through our prayer.
Let us start by first examining who exactly is our neighbor. When we hear the term “neighbor” we often only associate it with people who live right next door to our home. Interestingly enough, in Leviticus chapter 19, the idea of neighbor is clearly defined for us.
Leviticus 19:9-10 talks about not removing all of the harvests but leaving some “for the poor and for the sojourner.” This is saying that your neighbor may not be in the same social economic status as you are, and it also implies that your neighbor may be just traveling through. It is not simply limited to the person that lives next door.
Verses 11-14 teach that we are not to lie and steal from one another. We are not to withhold wages that are due to those who earned them, nor are we to intentionally harm the deaf and the blind. This is showing us that our neighbor is the person with whom we work or hire. Our neighbor may have physical disabilities which we are to be compassionate towards.
Continuing through Leviticus chapter 19, verses 15-16 walk us through how we are to conduct ourselves within the structure of government and the court system. We are not to show partiality towards the powerful versus the poor. It is teaching us that our neighbor might be more than someone we live next to but also might be someone we find ourselves in court against.
Finally, in verses 17-18 of Leviticus 19, we see the connection of family brought right into the conversation of neighbor. It teaches us to not have hate in our hearts for our brothers (family); it directly ties that into neighbors. Verse 18 says, “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” The implication is that your neighbor can also be your family.
Considering all the ways that another person can be your neighbor might seem overwhelming. In fact, our selfish nature is probably already saying, “What about me?” A good friend of mine was teaching me sales tactics and he said that when you are selling a product to a person, you always have to tune the radio to WII FM. That radio station (actually an acronym) is really the core question of our flesh, “What’s In It For Me?” As a sales tactic, I get it, but we need to take this over to a spiritual application; “Does our prayer life resemble the radio station?” Do we only pray about the things that matter to us or benefit us? Please, do not misunderstand me when I say this. I am not saying God does not want to hear your heart. The question is meant to prompt you to consider others before you consider yourself. We are to be praying through the second greatest commandment of the Bible, loving your neighbor as yourself. Do we include in our prayers other peoples’ petitions, requests, concerns, hurt, pain, or struggles with sin?
As we walk through what Jesus lays out in this prayer, I hope and pray you will see Him point us back to the fundamental aspects of the Christian walk. We are to be loving God and loving others, especially through our prayer life.