Who Is My Neighbor?

“But every woman shall ask of her neighbor, namely, of her who dwells near her house, articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing; and you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.” Exodus 3:22

Neighbor: "Namely, of her who dwells near her house..." We might at times wonder what the Bible meant by neighbor, and quite early in the Exodus the word of God lets us know who our neighbors are - those who dwell near us. Just as we thought. So, how well are we doing at loving our neighbors as ourselves?

It isn't even the person dwelling next door that trips us up all of the time; sometimes it is that closest of dwellers in the neighborhood who does not enjoy the love he or she should have from us. Yes, your spouse is in fact your closest neighbor, or should be, and next to them are the children of the household. We have neighbors so close, and so much opportunity to learn to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Ah, the plundering. Well, that was a one-time deal for the children of Israel to collect their back pay for 400 years of slavery. We are not to plunder our neighbors, but notice the asking. God was at work there in that time and there was no theft involved. I did write 'here' first before realizing there are no ancient Egyptians around me, but here is good too, for God is at work here and now too! Perhaps I can share a little gold of the good news of Jesus with my neighbor today.

Have some of the love of Christ today, Internet neighbors!

Bucky