One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.
Proverbs 12:26
Over the years, we’ve had many neighbors, and I have to say that they have all been great. We never fought over their trees dropping leaves in our yard or argued over property lines. We tried to keep things quiet after a certain point in the evenings and offer help whenever possible. But when you fall in love with a house, you can’t always choose your neighbors. On the flip side, they can’t always choose you either!
So as a neighbor, what is our responsibility? Should we keep to ourselves and not speak or bother our neighbors? The world today would say closing our doors is an entirely appropriate way to live our lives. We work, come home, lock the doors, and do it all over again the next day. It seems to be a pattern of inconsequential social distancing. We distance ourselves for no other reason than it just takes too much energy to invest in others and involve ourselves in their lives. I mean, we have your own lives to live. Why bother with other families? It’s hard enough to keep your own family above the raging waters of daily craziness and practice schedules.
Your neighbor is counting on you
Whether we realize it or not, our neighbors count on us. That’s right. They rely on us. How? Scripture tells us that the righteous is a guide to his neighbor. Whether we believe it or not, we are guides. Their lives are just as crazy as our lives. They have similar struggles and disappointments.
A guide is someone who shows the way by leading. Here’s our obligation. As people who love Jesus, we should lead others towards right decisions in their lives. The first right decision is to help them make a life-changing decision to place their trust in Jesus. That is the most important decision anyone can ever make. The second is to help them make good and godly decisions for their family and work life.
Your neighbors will recognize your righteousness. I’m not talking about a Pharisaical kind of righteousness where you put on a robe with sewn-on jewels and sit in your back yard while asking them to come over and kiss your ring. I’m talking about a kind of righteousness that displays compassionate love for them and their families. Their struggle is real, and God may have placed them in your life to help them through the most challenging crisis they’ve ever faced or maybe ever will face.
Your neighbor is not counting on this
Bad guidance is useless and leads them away from Jesus. That should never be our goal. God gives us so many opportunities to help others, and we squander it with our selfish issues and attitudes. I mean seriously. So your neighbor places a potted plant 1 foot over your property line. Is that enough to ruin your witness? Your neighbor doesn’t keep their yard as immaculate as you keep your yard. Does that make them a worthless neighbor? Maybe they work 14 hours a day and are completely worn out when they get home and can’t make ends meet. So they don’t have time to cut their grass, and they don’t have the money to pay someone to do it for them. How can we, as neighbors, help someone like that? CUT THEIR GRASS. Seriously.
Instead of complaining about your neighbors, be a good one. We can’t guide someone towards Jesus if we hate them because their yard is full of weeds. Maybe our hearts are filled with weeds. We can’t expect someone to listen to godly guidance if we hardly talk with them and try to show some interest in their family. Yes, as people who love Jesus, we should be the ones to make that first move.
When our neighbors see us get into our cars on Sunday morning and head to church, but during the week see us as unloving, compassionless, self-centered, and hypocritical, why would they listen to anything we have to say. I wouldn’t.
Are some of our neighbors worthless? Absolutely NOT. God doesn’t create worthless people. Everyone has incredible worth because God created them for His purpose. Who are we to say our neighbors are worthless? Maybe we need to take a few minutes this morning and pray that God would change our hearts and give us more opportunities to do the right things with our neighbors. Lead them, guide them, encourage them, pray for them, help them, love them, and listen to them.
God gives us influence with our neighbors. What kind of influence will you demonstrate? What kind of neighbor are you?