Love Your Neighbour as Yourself

Love Your Neighbour as Yourself

And one of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, "What commandment is the foremost of all?" Jesus answered, "The foremost is, 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' "The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." (NAS, Mark 12:28-31)

All of us Christians will have eternal life with God after we have done our time on this earthly world. While we are on this world we have to obey the first commandments of absolute love to God. Then we have to obey the second greatest commandment of loving your neighbours as yourself.

The challenge is now, �How am I going to love my neighbours as myself?�

The next time when you are overseas, I plead with you to visit the memorial halls for people who have passed on from this world. Usually there is an urn containing the ashes in a small cubicle in the wall. In front of it you would see the photograph of the deceased, the name, the date of birth and the date of death. You would see people whose age from less than a month to more than a 100 years old. You would be surprised that many of these people are babies, children, youths, beautiful young ladies and handsome young men who were in the prime of their lives when they left this world. There were also grandfathers and grandmothers who lived more than 90 years old when they left this world.

The first question is, �Did they experience love from their neighbours while they were in this world?�

The second question is, �Did they give love to their neighbours while they were in this world?�

The final question is, �Did all of you give love to these neighbours of yours while they were in this world?�

I am going to write on two parts about loving your neighbours as yourself.

The first part is about putting out your hands to show love to them. And the second part is about holding back your hands in showing love to them.

For most of the Asian people our life philosophy follows the teaching of Confucius. He taught us to show love and respect in the family. He taught us to show love and concern to other members of the society. If all of us do our part we would have a strong country which in turn will give us happiness, peace and prosperity.

In the year 1963, I opened my eyes to the world and I found out I was at the 18th level of Hell. My parents were divorced and my father disappeared from the town. My mother had a difficult bleeding pregnancy and was spending most of her time in bed. When she was able to sit up, she would glue paper bags for sale to the village sundry shops. So I spent most of my time going through the rubbish dumps to pick up papers for her. The people surrounding me were all from hell itself. There were youngsters and old people standing by the roadside. They were all waiting and hoping that some small sub contractor will pick them up for a day job. Whenever a small lorry comes up, there would be a big pushing and jostling to get the attention of the small boss. There were girls and women aged between sixteen and sixty. They all put on cheap makeup and hairdos. They would cut their long dresses short so that the soldier boys can have a good look at their sexy legs. They were all hoping that the soldiers would pick them up for a short time and money would exchange hands.

I have two friends, Annie and Jenny. They were all aged between three and four. We played together games of stones, sand and water. Indeed we were the best of friends. One afternoon at 3 pm, the nice and cordial friendship ended abruptly.

There was a new man in town. And he decided to cycle to our slums and sell ice creams from a thermos flask. At 2.30pm , he stopped in front of three of us and shouted," Nice cold and sweet ice creams! For children! Only 5 cents a cup!" Annie and Jenny ran back to their parents to get a 5 cents coin each but I stayed immobile with a few stones in my little hands. I didn't ran back to my mother because I knew that she had nothing in the tin beneath her bed.

Then Annie asked me," Why didn't you go to your mother and get 5 cents to buy the ice cream? Don't you like ice cream too?" I just shook my head because my answer would insult my mother. After a while, both Annie and Jenny had got a cup of ice cream in their hands. They said," Since you are our good friend, you can have one lick at each of our ice creams." I shook my head because if I did that the two licks would insult myself, my dignity, my pride and my family for life.

After 5 minutes, the two little girls realized that they have touched a raw nerve. Even at three years old, they were wise little girls and they quickly ran far far away to enjoy their ice creams. They never mentioned the incident afterward.

As for me, I feel that it is a pain and a burden to hang around with "Rich little Annie and Jenny who have 5 cents each to buy an ice cream cup". They may enjoy the luxury every afternoon and it would be a difficult time for their little hearts and my poor soul. I never played with them again for the rest of my life. That is how the childhood friendship ended.

During that incident, we were watched by around twenty men waiting for day jobs and fifteen women waiting for a short time with the soldiers. I'm sure they can read the pain in the little heart of mine. Nobody would open their mouth or point their fingers and say," Ah, that little boy cannot even get 5 cents from his mother. He is crying in his heart and watering in his mouth to see his two little girlfriends licking their ice creams." I guess for those thirty over miserable men and women have more severe pains in their hearts, minds and soul. Even if their hearts are much bigger than mine, we are beating with the same beat and frequency.

Their silence, understanding and compassion are what I meant by Lover your neighbours as yourself. Love doesn't mean that you must give time and energy to help your neighbors. That would be a short term that wouldn't solve their long term life problems. But the real love that they need in this case is the love to let them climb up of their poverty at their own time.God has a plan for them. Let God work his plan for them. Let then succeed in God's plans. Do not throw in a comment which may break their hearts.

This is a real story by me. I met Jenny and Annie many years afterwards, married with many children, washing clothes for people beside the stream. At many a times I would buy two boxes of offer Walls' ice cream and give it to them. I parked my car far far away because I do not want them to know I drive an air conditioned car while they are still riding on bicycles. I do not want to break their hearts. The two boxes of ice cream is a gesture that I returned to them out of gratitude that they showed to me many years ago. They understand me even though our friendship lasted less than three months at the age of three years old. They just smiled at me and accepted the two boxes of ice cream.

God Bless you. Love your neighbours as yourself. It is because God loves you and God created your neighbours for you to show God's love on Earth.