Who Is My Neighbor?

Loving our Neighbors

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Luke 10:27

“I’ve been to the Mountaintop” is the popular name of the last speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr on April 3, 1968; the following day, April 4, 1968, he was assassinated (50 years ago).

In that speech Dr. King spoke about the parable that Jesus told, a parable called of the Good Samaritan, found in Luke 10:25-37, it is a parable about loving our neighbors. In his speech Dr. King turned a common self-centered question around, from “what will happen to me?” to an uncommon other-centered question, “what will happen to them?”

Dr. King spoke these words in that speech about the parable:

“the first question that the priest asked — the first question that the Levite asked was, “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?” But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”  That’s the question before you tonight. … The question is not, “If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?” The question is, “If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?” That’s the question.”

“I have decided to stick to love…

Hate is too great a burden to bear.”

― Martin Luther King Jr

A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches

“Go and do likewise” – Jesus – Luke 10:37