Our responsibility is to regard others’ needs as important as our own and be willing to do whatever it takes to lift them up, even if that comes at great personal cost to ourselves.
Pastor Freddie Hinson Jr.
In this election season we Americans love to talk about our rights, and that’s not all wrong. The bible teaches us that God gave to each of us, as human beings made in his image, rights, dignity, and certain freedoms, chief of which is the choice of whether to obey him or disobey him, to worship or reject him, its freedom of choice.
Rights are good. But for followers of Jesus, we are also called to die to our rights. Jesus said in Matthew 16:24, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (ESV).
Insisting on your rights feels very American; dying to your rights does not. But that’s where there is a Y in the road and the call to follow Jesus and the call to follow the American dream diverge. Dying to your rights was a radical, unpopular message in Jesus’ day, just as it is today.
After Jesus explained to the Pharisees that the ultimate expression of the law is to love your neighbor as yourself, they asked him, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29) Feeling convicted, they were trying to evade the implications of what Jesus was saying.
Jesus told the story of the good Samaritan, who used his own money to help a wounded stranger who had been overlooked by two religious leaders. The good Samaritan even left the wounded man in the care of an innkeeper and opened a line of credit to make sure the man would have what he needed.
In one sense, the priest and Levite had the “right” to walk on by this man. They hadn’t caused the accident. But in another sense, they were profoundly responsible.
Jesus’ answer to, “And who is my neighbor?” is, “Whoever around you is in need.”
Your responsibility is to regard others’ needs as important as your own and be willing to do whatever it takes to lift them up, even if that comes at great personal cost to yourself.
Reflections
What are the practical implications of “laying down your life” for your neighbor?
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Why should our service to others cost us? In what ways are you serving sacrificially?
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Prayer
Pray for humility so you can look at your neighbors as Jesus would-with compassion and a desire to serve. If you need courage to step out and serve for the first time or in a new way, ask God for it! Tell him that you are ready to do whatever he tells you to do, even if it costs you, and he will give you everything you need to be faithful to him.