Your obligation to your neighbor

July 29, 2020 | 30 comments

Do you ever feel obligated to think less than perfect love toward your neighbor?

Maybe they said something you found offensive, and you felt no choice but to resent their statement and to get angry with them. Or maybe a family member did something you disapprove of and you spent hours, even days, mentally criticizing their acts?

Whatever situation arises between you and your neighbor, view it as an opportunity to love more and to prove the hand of God at work in the situation.

You are never obligated to resent! You are never required to hate. You can choose to love your neighbor, rather than resent them.

Love doesn’t overlook evil but exists to dissolve it. Love doesn’t pretend like an injustice didn’t happen, but works to correct that injustice with compassion, wise sharing, support, and shining examples of what is right.

When opportunity knocks to side with Love, rather than to consume with hate, choose to love!

Love is the pathway to heaven. It’s home with God where life is a joy to live, and neighbors get along. Anything less than heaven is an error of belief that can be dissolved with omnipresent Love.

Practice omnipresent Love.

Let Love lead your thought, inspire it, guide it, and dominate it.

Your thought is under no obligation to go negative. Choose to love instead. You’ll stay healthier and happier, guaranteed!

30 thoughts on “Your obligation to your neighbor”

  1. Yes, and we need to, “Love thy politicians as thyself,.” too! We need to get above the politics and see God’s government expressing itself as the undefiled children of God-the ‘right ideas’ of God.

  2. I’ve never thought of the “obligation” to love my neighbors as a gift. Thank you, Evan.

  3. “If thou the bending reed wouldst break
    By thought or word unkind,
    Pray that his spirt you partake,
    Who loved and healed mankind:
    Seek holy thoughts and heavenly strain,
    That make men one in love remain.

    First verse, “Like brother birds, that soar and sing”

    End. “And life most sweet, as heart to heart
    Speaks kindly when we meet and part.”

    This came to me years ago when a neighbor
    was changing their house structure which was
    in the back of their house which they would
    never see, but I would every day.

    I was shocked with the words, “If thou”
    Also a bending reed would not break, it would
    be flexible. It would take a lot of weight to
    break it.

    So even walking away from the television
    news cast, can we live “heart to heart?”
    I now have the opportunity to love the neighbors
    on the other side. And the other side of the
    country, world.

    Every word in Hymn p.30, entitled Love, heals

  4. I love that graphic. What a hoot! : )
    This morning’s gem of inspiration inspired me to think, a house divided against itself can not stand.
    “They” try to divide “us” in so many ways, by race, religion, sex, financial status, political beliefs, age, etc. “They” is not inclusive…it divides and sets us apart, whereas “us” IS inclusive. It shelters us as part of a whole.
    The commandment is to love our neighbor As ourself, not less than or more than, but equal to ourself, as we are all equal, not divided, all inclusive in the One family of Love, God. That is our True identity. I love being part of this Spirit View family.

  5. A good parallel for this weeks lesson. A challenging image looking over the fence! Sometimes hard to see God’s perfect neighbor through the presentation of human pretense.
    At a party store my son saw a very big and strong man, who was unloading beer to take into the store. He had no mask, oh dear. My son in his innocence yelled out an instruction to this man.
    He immediately took the offensive and gestured aggression.
    The work began once again to see the loving component in the man’s spiritual identity. It took awhile and a few days later I saw him at a warehouse where he was loading up tobacco and liquor for the party store. I looked at him and smiled a salutation. He finally smiled back and looked genuinely pleased to see me.
    The lesson of the Good Samaritan in this weeks lesson is always with one when we turn from earth to Spirit. And see the opportunity to do good to our neighbor.

  6. Thank you, Evan. I really needed to be reminded about the “neighbors” that are rioting, the clerk at the grocery store who was “bossy,” the cable company who keeps sending me bigger bills & then puts me on hold for an hour & a half! Letting these situations determine my joy isn’t part of God’s plan.
    Love, Love, Love is the promise.
    I’ll be vigilant about seeing God’s reflection each & every moment. Please let’s all watch & pray?

  7. “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Matt 22:39

    “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you: do ye even so to them:…”. Matt 7:12

    I recall seeing an injustice that I wished to address and praying about how to address it and the answer was the Golden Rule. It was also to look at my motive for addressing it – the common good. And, how would I want someone to address it if I were the one who had done it and needed the wake up. And then trying to practice this each day with my daily interactions with others so I can get better at it. Sometimes I have turned it into a game – My favorite is having someone call me at work who is upset because they are convinced of a wrong that I know is not true and gently showing them what they think is not true. At the end of the call they are happy when we hang up and it feels like a great victory! I wish I could see every situation like that and get that result and with practice maybe I will get better at other issues that come along that I haven’t addressed before.

  8. Thank you, Evan!

    I often find comfort in the sweet simplicity of hymn #315:

    Speak gently, it is better far to rule by love than fear;…
    Speak gently, let no harsh word mar the good we may do here…

    Speak gently to the erring ones,
    They must have toiled in vain;…
    Perchance unkindness made them so;
    O win them back again…

    Speak gently, ’tis a little thing,
    Dropped in the heart’s deep well;…
    The good the joy that it may bring,
    Eternity shall tell.

    Happy day to all❣️

  9. Loved this, Evan. Sometimes our obligation to our neighbor is to see things through their eyes. It certainly is not always easy. Last nite I watched the film “13th” which is available for free on Netflix you tube. Knowing that it is about the history of racism in our country,it took a stretch to watch, as I knew it would affect me emotionally. I am so grateful that I did. It’s a truly beautiful and powerful film with so much elegance and grace expressed by all the participants. And I didnt even cry until it was over. We need to be aware of our past in order to make progressive change. I thank God for Ava DuVernay’s film and it’s positve impact on our country. And I thank God for giving Evan the blessed idea for having our blogging family.

  10. ‘Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God.’ Matt 5;9
    Love is the very basis of harmony and healing for us all . Thank you Evan and all the SV contributors. It’s a privilege to share❣️

  11. I can vouch for this. It may take a very long time but don’t stop until you get there. At first I thought it was not possible but I learned to separate what some one is and what someone does. The child of God is not the false sense of man.

    1. Amen! My late prac wud often remind me “separate the behaviour from the individual” a wise thing to do.

  12. What a great photo Evan!! Hilarious! Woke me out of a mental (and literal) fog first thing this morning.
    It is such a blessing to have found this SpiritView family who makes it their mission to love their neighbor As you so beautifully say Evan, “Love is the pathway to heaven.”

  13. Thank you Evan and all! This hits home as I have been praying about my across the street neighbor. The 20 year old living with a single mom and seemingly out of control. Loud parties, illegal very loud fireworks throughout the night and suspected drug dealing going on. This being a normally very quiet, somewhat rural neighborhood with mostly seniors. I have been praying. But mostly just tolerating it with the hope that he would probably move out or grow up. But recently the activity had been escalating.many neighbors and especially the pets were tormented by the barrage of fire rockets that he had been lighting for months. Many neighbors had even called the police but that didn’t deter him. The police informed us that he was hanging out with gang members and that his mom was afraid of him. As I prayed more deeply, the idea that kept coming was that God was this boys Father and Mother. In fact God was loving him and his mother and governing his activity. I realized that in Truth evil is no part of a child of God nor should it be tolerated but should be exposed.After one very disturbing night , I remembered that I had the grandmother’s phone number , who owns the house. I called her and let her know about the behavior.She thanked me and was genuinely concerned and said she would talk to him. Well, that was the end of it. Our neighborhood is at peace once again. All the behavior stopped. I am continuing to pray to know that God is blessing that family with good. I now specifically pray for my neighborhood each day. I pray to know that everyone is embraced in God’s loving care and that God’s man is pure and upright , compassionate and unselfish.

    1. Yes, I did feel obligated to think less then perfect love towards my neighbor – even several times to several neighbors, also towards church members. And I struggled very much with that wrong feeling and thoughts at that time. But God is Love and God is all and man is the image of that omnipresent and omnipotent divine Love, so we cannot else but love love love everybody in reality. This truth is such a comfort to me, and i am still learning. I thank God endlessly that He lead me to this wonderful Christ Science in which I was taught the divine Truths .

    2. Thank you Evan for reminding us to love more truely! Thanks for your comforting
      Thank you CB for your wonderful demonstration with your neighbor and for the simple yet profound christian scientific thoughts you prayed so loving and successfully! ☆☆☆
      From this I see that I will pray more for my neighbors, where are loud children and families living, who love to make parties in there backyards until deep night. However I already loved and saw them as God’s belowed children.

  14. So many helpful truths here. The focus on “obligation” and “practice” is especially helpful to me.
    Thank you, Evan and to others who have responded so thoughtfully

  15. Perfect timing. My son just walked in and said the neighbor across the street yelled at him for parking on his side of the street. (These are public streets.) We’ve had trouble with this man before. I was tempted to feel victimized, until I pulled up this column. Thank you, Evan, for helping me to return to love.

  16. Thank you, this was really timely for me today. I like the part about love not overlooking evil or, to me, don’t pretend it doesn’t exist…. but it can be dissolved.

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