(ETA: A much better response can be found here: https://mereorthodoxy.com/and-who-is-my-neighbor/)
If you’ve been around the New Testament to any great length, you are probably familiar with the story of the Good Samaritan.
Luke 10:25-37 is brief. A man tried to challenge Jesus about what it mean to love God and love your neighbor by trying to get an exemption upon “neighbor.”
Jesus flatly smacked him down. “The people you encounter are your neighbors. Help those people.” That is, the neighbor is the proximate.
But some foolish men have now taken up the question again, to narrow what Jesus expanded here. “Is my neighbor someone on the next block? The next town? The next state? The next nation? Sure the further away they are, the less of a neighbor they are.” And these men add “Besides, the ones who are far off might be dangerous to our way of life.”
I know. If you follow Jesus, you’re probably shocked by such cruel sentiments.
But there are people who call upon Jesus this very moment who are advancing these arguments.
For example, here is one from a popular conservative website. I’ve inserted an image here:
I’m still blinking at this.
For one, the question is not “Who is their neighbor?” but “Who is my neighbor?” Who are the people God has put into my life to bring healing and hope and restoration? Who has the same God who called me to salvation brought along so that I might bring salvation to them? (Salvation, of course, meaning much more than just “Recite the Sinner’s Prayer.”)
This writer, and many of his followers, presume that our neighborliness stops at the nation’s border. We couldn’t possibly help them all, they reason, so we must therefore…help none. To show the love of God, we must show the cruelty of the fearful sheep of this country.
Now, we can go into politics over this. What is the best political solution for the crises in the world, most especially the ones where the United States has stirred up so much trouble.
But—that is zero reason to not do our duty toward God and our love to our neighbor. Those who come along, we help along. That is the Gospel.