Deuteronomy 22:1-4 NIV“If you see your fellow Israelite’s ox or sheep straying, do not ignore it but be sure to take it back to its owner. If they do not live near you or if you do not know who owns it, take it home with you and keep it until they come looking for it. Then give it back. Do the same if you find their donkey or cloak or anything else they have lost. Do not ignore it. If you see your fellow Israelite’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it. Help the owner get it to its feet.” https://bible.com/bible/111/deu.22.1-4.NIV
Neighborliness used to be a common word in our vocabulary, especially in the home and school. It meant the practical means by which we obey God’s command to love our neighbor as ourselves. The allowance of the removal of God from public schools by weak Christian leaders has resulted in an increasingly less neighborly society. Neither has it helped that fewer and fewer read the Bible or study it with their fellow parishioners who call themselves Christians. While we are free from the law to help our neighbor with his broken-down donkey, we are not free from the law of love for those whose car is broken down. Thinking of others in general, then specifically how we can love our neighbor as ourselves practically, must increase in the hearts and minds of Christians for the world to see and experience more of the transformation that happens when a person is truly born again. Likewise, we must teach our children these things and insist upon them in our homes where neighborliness is first learned and applied if the parent is truly obedient to God’s command to train up our children in the way they are to go. We are born sinful, which means we are born selfish and self-centered. We see this nature in toddlers daily and, unfortunately, increasingly in adults. We can train through law and discipline thoughtfulness for others until our children are old enough to understand and love the thoughtfulness of others because of its goodness in society for them and everyone else. This is what Christian parents must do even as they model the same before their children.
