Hello, there! I am Deborah from Martin Luther Church in Ottawa. As a young person, I am glad to live in an era that I am not bullied because of who I am. As a Christian, I am just as glad since I have so many things to learn! “And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” (Matthew 22:39).; this common verse that appears constantly as I walk on my path through life, but who is my neighbor? Well, I believe everyone is my neighbor. My family, my friends, even a stranger on the street, everyone is my neighbor. But how can I be a good neighbor onto others?
The Good Samaritan -one of Jesus Christ’s parables- is the example often used for being a good neighbor. When a man was robbed, beaten, and was left to die, a priest and a Levite passed by. They avoided him with the thought of robbers being close by, but soon, a Samaritan that no-one liked came to helped him. Jesus asks the lawyer who was a good neighbor in this story, and they answered “the Samaritan”, therefore telling us to go forth and do the just the same as the Samaritan.
On the topic of this parable, Jesus didn’t say: “Thou shalt not aid those with darker skin than the whitest wool.”; otherwise that be a whole other story. But it isn’t, is it? According to John, chapter seven, verse 24, it says: “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” God made us in his image, not so that we’d attack each other because of who we are, what colours our skins are, NO! God made Adam and Eve so they wouldn’t be lonely, He made all of us so we won’t be lonely. The colour of our skins doesn’t define someone’s personality, habits or actions, it’s what they say, think and act. My mom often said, “Treat others the way you want to be treated. If you don’t know how you want to be treated, than how do you expect others to treat you?” You don’t want to be hunted down, treated like trash or be assaulted and bullied just because of who you are. Everyone wants to be heard, that’s just how we are.
Being a Good Samaritan means to be merciful and kind to everyone, which is a more defined way of saying “friend”.. What’s on the outside doesn’t reflect what’s on the inside; a very strong person could be the softest person you’ll ever meet; a mean-looking teacher could be the most kind teacher out of the whole school; therefore a good neighbor isn’t caring about others because it says so in the Bible, it means go out there and help out a neighbor.
- Deborah is from Martin Luther Church in Ottawa