Relational

Lately I have been really thinking about our relationships as Christians. I mean we as human beings are naturally a relational creature. In today's society our relationships have taken on a different feel too. Look at how we communicate these days, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and if your old school MySpace. All of this just got me thinking about Christians and these forms of media and how it affects their relationships.

The passage  that I have been studying is Matthew 22:34-40 and it's relationship back to the Decalogue. In this passage in Matthew Jesus tells the Pharisees that the two greatest Commandments are that "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind"  and that "You shall love your neighbor as yourself". The first refers back to the Jewish Shema and the Jews relationship to their God. The second refers to the Jews relationship with each other and the Gentiles. The second is the one that has really brought me to a deep searching of my soul.


The first thing I have been asking myself is do I really know my neighbors and with that do I even have a desire to know my neighbor. I started thinking, I live on a fairly safe street in a safe city and I have made no effort to know any of the people who live around me. I mean I feel a sense of camaraderie with the guy down the street that has a Christian sticker on his car, but that's about it. Is that right? Here I am in seminary, working my way towards a pastoral position and I do not know my neighbor. So often I am happy talking to my Christian buddies about theological controversies or about the interpretation of a certain text, but I do not take the time to know my neighbor. So if I don't know my neighbor, how can I love him? If I do not share the Gospel with them, can I even say that I love them? When I don't show care for their soul, do I love my neighbor?


My heart has been heavy lately because I believe that I am not the only one who is this way. I think if we were to go through our churches we would find that we are very good at maintaining our Christianity in the four walls of our church. This is not to say that we don't evangelize every now and then or that we don't go on a missions trip once a year. I just think that we do all this and we do not know the people who live around us. I believe taht we are somewhat afraid to share the Gospel with the people that live around us, because they are going to see us everyday as long as we live near them. When we go to the mall or another country we can evangelize them and not realy fear rejection because we will not have to see them everyday, but our neighbors.....we will see everyday.


So ask yourself the question I am asking myself, "If I call myself a Christian and I believe that Christ called me to share the Gospel message with all people, then why do I not know my neighbor?" and "why do I not love my neighbor so much that the fear of rejection is no big deal?" I pray that my heart will change and I pray that the hearts of our churches will change also.