Hi, everyone. It’s great to be back. I’ve been excited to see your new pastor installed and spend time with him just to get to know him and become friends. And it’s been a joy to hear how God’s worked in his life and built him up and brought him here. And we’re excited to see what’s next for you all and for him. And if you’ll turn with me to the book of Proverbs, he picked this sermon tonight. I gave him a couple options, and he liked this one. Proverbs chapter 3.
So we’re staying in the Old Testament. The book of Proverbs is a book of wisdom. In contrast to law, it does not function the same way that law functions in scripture. So what does scripture mean by wisdom, and how is it different? Wisdom is an intuition about life. We might think of a wise person as clever, crafty, or skilled. They understand how a particular aspect of life works, and they’re able to leverage what they know to find great success. Law is going to dictate every move for you, but wisdom just orients you in the right direction. If you have the intuition you need, you’ll be able to find your way.
For example, have you ever noticed how two people can follow the same exact baking instructions for a batch of cookies. They swear they follow the same direction, and yet someone’s batch is so much better than the other person’s. How is that the case? Law says, well, there’s something wrong here. They both follow the same steps, right? Well, wisdom says there’s something more intuitive to this that the wise will understand and know. Maybe they can’t even explain it. That’s wisdom.
Now the Christian faith says that God created all things on purpose with purpose. Therefore true wisdom can only be found fully when we know him through a loving relationship through Jesus Christ and when we apply his good design for life to our lives and the world around us.
In our passage this evening in Proverbs chapter 3, Solomon writes about the wisdom of being a good neighbor. the wisdom of a good neighbor. So let’s read Proverbs chapter 3, starting at verse 27 to the end of the chapter. This is on page 672 in your pew Bible. Proverbs chapter 3, let’s begin at verse 27. And let’s hear now God’s word.
Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it’s in your power to do it. Do not say to your neighbor, go and come again. Tomorrow I’ll give it when you have it with you. Do not plan evil against your neighbor who dwells trustingly beside you. Do not contend with a man for no reason when he has done you no harm. Do not envy a man of violence. Do not choose any of his ways.
For the devious person is an abomination to the Lord, but the upright are his confidence. The Lord’s curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the dwelling of the righteous. Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he gives favor. The wise will inherit honor, but fools get disgrace.
This is God’s word. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we just ask you now as we meditate on your word briefly, you would help us. Help us to see the beauty of your words so we might apply it to our lives and grow up evermore into the image of Jesus Christ. We thank you for hearing us. In Jesus’ name, amen. When you see a run-down neighborhood, what do you think it takes to turn things around? Do you think it takes more funding? Do you think it takes probably maybe a better school in town? What about better policing?
I’ve been reading a fascinating but pretty dense book recently titled, The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs. It was originally written in 1961. was a housewife, a journalist, author, and activist, and she moved to New York City with her sister during the Great Depression.
And her work helped her revitalize her neighborhood, Greenwich Village, which is a part of Manhattan. And Jane is the kind of lady who would stand up against federal bulldozers, and city planning committees that assumed they could turn things around by simply building new infrastructure. Jane proved the renewal of a city is found in the simple things that often go overlooked.
One of them being the people that are already right there on the block, taking responsibility to care for one another. In other words, to be a good neighbor. So if there is any new infrastructure to be built, she theorizes that it needs to be built in a way that helps people get out and about and in each other’s lives. I believe she’s getting at the wisdom of God we’re reading about in Proverbs chapter 3. It’s maybe intuitive to her. I’m not sure if she was a believer.
The Lord calls us to be good neighbors, for it’s central to how he designed neighborhoods to flourish. But being a good neighbor isn’t merely a strategy for renewing our neighborhoods. It’s also part of our calling as God’s people. Particularly, this is where we have even greater stakes for us today as the people of God. It might be easy for some of us to come to church and present ourselves as pleasant, hospitable, and kind people, while the neighbors on our actual street know a different side to us. Yes, even Christians can be bad neighbors. But this should never be the case because being a good neighbor matters to God. And it’s one way that we as his people reflect what he is like.
What’s more, being a good neighbor is one way we can illustrate the gospel of Jesus Christ who came to us. We not only need to be good neighbors in order to help renew our neighborhoods, as Christians we need to be good neighbors so that the watching world can know what God is like and might be compelled to receive his friendship through Jesus. And when we put all of this together we can see the big idea of the passage that we read, which is this, that because God moved into our neighborhood through Jesus, we can be good neighbors who reflect the gospel. Because God moved into our neighborhood through Jesus, we can be good neighbors who reflect the gospel, and to unpack this big idea, we’ll see three kinds of neighbors that our passage shows us. First, see the good neighbor. Second, we see the wise neighbor. And then third, we see the new neighbor that we all need. A good neighbor, a wise neighbor, and the new neighbor we all need. So first, see the good neighbor of Proverbs chapter three. About a year ago, my wife was in Stoughton, with her two kids and pregnant with the third.
And the tire blows up in the car, so she gets stranded in a parking lot. And I was in a meeting, and I was out on Cape, and it was going to take me a long time to get out. And I was going to go out to pick her up, but it was going to be a while, maybe an hour and a half. So what is this mother of two and a half children supposed to do in this random parking lot? Well, she parked right across the street from a neighborhood.
And sure enough, an elderly man comes out and says, do you need anything? Do you need any help? And she doesn’t want to be intrusive. And then she realized, I really do need helping. I kind of need to go to the bathroom. So maybe I’ll just ask to use the bathroom. And so she asked to use the bathroom.
And sure enough, within 10 minutes, I’m getting these pictures of the kids in their living room with all these toys around them and their new grandparents that they just adopted. And these wonderful people who took care of my family while they’re waiting for me, and actually they put them in the van and met me halfway even. Random people, good neighbors. Being a good neighbor is good. It’s what God created us to be. Look back at our passage, verses 27 to 28, we see a good neighbor. When it’s in your power, don’t withhold good from the one to whom it belongs. Don’t say to your neighbor, go away and come back later, I’ll give it tomorrow, when it’s there with you.
Now this phrase, to whom it belongs, makes some people believe this verse is referring to a person who hired someone else for a job. When the work was done, the worker went to get paid, but their employer kept coming up with excuses for not paying them, even though they had the money. It could be as simple as you borrowed a person’s tool or a toy. Whatever it is, it’s their right to receive it, and they’ve come to claim it. But sometimes it’s not convenient for you to give it up just yet. but that doesn’t give us the right to keep it.
So it’s wrong. When we make up some excuse, when you have it right there with you, I think verse 28 is corresponding with verse 34, where it says, the Lord mocks those who mock. The one who says, go away, I’ll give it back tomorrow, they’re just stalling. They don’t really have any plan or intention of returning what they promised.
The book of Deuteronomy from the Old Testament, one of the four books of Israelite law into the Old Covenant, says this in Deuteronomy 24, verses 14 and 15, do not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether one of your Israelite brothers or one of the resident aliens in a town in your land. You are to pay him his wages each day before the sun sets, because he is poor and depends on them. Otherwise, he will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be held guilty.
So we should be as good as our word to pay or to return to others what we agreed, when we agreed, and not a minute later. Of course, there’s some benefit. There’ll always be some benefit to holding on to something you owe just a little bit longer. But good neighbors won’t take advantage of one another with excuses or procrastination. But Solomon doesn’t specify this is money or property. He just generalizes and says, don’t withhold the good.
So this principle can be applied far beyond situations where we owe someone money or need to return something that we borrowed. Good can also apply to general help and assistance. In other words, doing good to your neighbor is just another way of saying, look out for them. Do they have a need? Does the pregnant lady broken down across the street need to use your bathroom? Don’t withhold any good. You see, you could do for another in the moment. So now we must go back to this phrase, the skeptics among us. Don’t withhold the good, it says, from the one to whom it belongs.
So now we want to figure out, does it really belong to them, my generosity? Does our kindness and help really belong to our neighbors? Well, based on Old Testament law, the kindness and help of the Israelites, anyways, did, in fact, belong to their neighbors.
Exodus chapter 23, verses four and five. If you come across your enemies, your enemies, stray ox or donkey, you must return it to him. If you see the donkey of someone who hates you, lying helpless under its load, and you want to refrain from helping it, you must help with it. Deuteronomy chapter 24, verse 19. When you reap the harvest in your field and you forget a sheaf in the field, don’t go back and get it. It is to be left for the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow.
Now, so far, I’ve just been citing Old Testament law of the Israelites under the Old Covenant? Does it really apply to our lives today in the same way? Well, yes and no. Jesus fulfilled the Old Covenant and established the New Covenant, which is why, for one, God’s people are now not identified under one single ethnic status, but are identified now among every ethnic status. This is why we don’t carry out the religious rituals of the Old Covenant anymore since they’ve expired in Jesus to whom they pointed. This is the second half of Ephesians chapter two. But consider this. So that’s the no, it doesn’t apply to us. Well, what about this?
Why did the Lord call out a special people for himself in the first place and give them this detailed law code I’ve been reading? So that they would be a light to the Gentiles. What does that mean? They were to display the glories of their God. Their law was to display what their God was like.
So you think about these laws like eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. That’s not like we want to exact justice and be like these legalists. No, they’re actually curbing the abuse of power as you read other law codes from other pagan nations. You know, think about Lamech from Genesis chapter 4. Anyone who avenges me, I’m going to avenge them seven times over. Mosaic law is actually holding it back so that vengeance doesn’t take over and run amok, and upholding justice. The law of God is to reflect his own heart, what he’s like, to display to the watching world around the Israelites.
And this is why it says in our passage, Proverbs 3, that basically bad neighbors are detestable to the Lord. They’re an abomination to him. The devious are detestable to the Lord, it says. It’s an utmost offense to the Lord. And why do they reach this level? Why are bad neighbors who take advantage of others around them reaching this level of utmost offense to the Lord?
It’s because he himself is a good neighbor. He himself is a friend. And we, as his people, were created to reflect that to the people around us. This is part of what it means to be made in the image of God. We’re image bearers of a neighborly God, and those who know him personally are called to reflect that so the world can know who he is and what he is like. Therefore, when we look past the needs of our neighbors, or worse, take advantage of people around us, we not only pervert the very purpose for which God created us, but we also distort the image of what he is like. Do you neighbors on your street know you? I mean, that’s a good question to ask. Do they even know you? But if they know you, here’s a second question. What do they know you as? As grumpy or happy? As picky or generous? As territorial or hospitable?
Much of modern American society just wants to be left alone. unobligated to help anyone. We build our fences high, we stay inside with the blinds closed, we only peek out our window if we’re suspicious of what someone across the street is doing. We only pop our head out the front door to say, hey, you can’t do that.
But God’s people are called to be different. This principle is carried over from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, from Moses to Christ, because it reflects the very heart of God and thus should reflect his people in every age. A man came to Jesus and asked him, what’s the greatest commandment? And Jesus and this man both came to agree. The greatest commandment was to love the Lord your God with your heart, soul, mind, and strength. They also agreed on the second greatest commandment, which is to love your neighbor as yourself.
The man then asked Jesus, okay, so who then, who’s my neighbor? And Jesus would go on to teach what is the now famous parable of the good Samaritan. Here’s how Hebrew scholar Bruce Waltke summarized what Jesus was doing. He writes, Jesus defined, not redefined, our neighbor as someone we encounter who is in need of help. You thought your neighbor was just the people who lived around you. According to Jesus, he defines our neighbor as the person who needs your help, as the one who is actually there.
Being a good neighbor is good. is how God created us to be. But second, we see in our passage being a good neighbor is also wise. It’s in our own best interest to be a good neighbor. We see God’s wisdom in calling us to be good neighbors for He designed neighborhoods to flourish through this simple calling. This brings us to the second neighbor of our passage, the wise neighbor. Being a good neighbor is wise because God designed good neighbors to be the most effective strategy for renewing a neighborhood.
I experienced this myself. My wife was away this time and I was left with the kids. I was picking up our son from preschool while my daughter was playing on the playground with all these other kids. And sure enough, I mean, mom just left like two hours ago and I already have to go to the ER. Yeah, my daughter slips and puts a gash in her head. And so now I’m grabbing my bleeding toddler and I’m trying to pick up my son with his backpack and all these things, and all these other parents around me are just looking at this chaos.
And then Frankie’s mom comes up and says, let me take Henry, you take care of Callie. Another mom came over, I didn’t even know who she was, she ushered me into the school nurse and Callie got patched up. Now what was happening there with Frankie’s mom? Who was she? Well, she wasn’t a complete stranger. We knew each other’s families, and yet we weren’t really close friends. We’ve never been in each other’s houses before, and I don’t even remember her name. I still just call her Frankie’s mom.
But because we’ve been in proximity with each other through our kids’ playgroups and schools, we’ve known each other enough to have this sense of confidence in each other. What was happening is our proximity in everyday life gave us a sense of responsibility for one another, more particularly for one another’s kids. And that’s why I was able to rely on her in that moment and not have to worry about it. We had cultivated an implicit sense of a mutual responsibility, being a part of the same community.
This is what Proverbs 3 is describing, we’ll see in one second. Jane Jacobs writes this in her book, the first thing to understand is that the public peace of cities is not kept primarily by police, necessary as police are. It is kept primarily by an intricate, almost unconscious network of voluntary controls and standards among the people themselves and enforced by the people themselves. And she goes on to tell some stories about her son running out in the middle of the street and the local locksmith rebuking him and bringing him back. and turning him into his mother.
This is what makes being a good neighbor not only good, but wise, which means, on the other hand, that being a bad neighbor is not only bad, but it’s foolish. The next two verses of our passage reflect this broader corporate implication of being a good neighbor.
So look back at verses 29 and 30. Don’t plan any harm against your neighbor, for he trusts you and lives near you. Don’t accuse anyone without cause when he’s done you no harm. These next two verses intensify the narrative, switching from the passive neighbor who simply ignores the people around them to the neighbor who is actively looking for an opportunity to take advantage of a situation because of the unique access and information they have about a person near them.
This is describing the exact opposite of Southern hospitality, if you’ve been around a person from the South. They constantly suggest to help you. Oh, you can sit here. Can I get you something to drink? Do you need more? Try this. Borrow that. And of course, come back any time. And us New Englanders are like, please, give me some space.
This is the exact opposite. We often turn the complete other way, far from thinking of ourself as a person who’s present for the purpose of serving other people, rather We’re living to serve our own good, to such an extent that we might be willing to do someone harm if we thought that it brought some perceived advantage to our life. This is what these two verses are trying to help us avoid. In the Old Testament law, there were many examples of this. Laws against stealing from your neighbor, of course, secretly changing property lines. There are many examples that we can consider even today, taking advantage of someone’s generosity.
A person gives you an open invitation, the access to your home, their vehicle, tools, or resources, and you begin treating their kindness as an entitlement. Verse 30 of our passage goes on to say, don’t accuse anyone without cause. When he’s done, you no harm. This could refer to something like a lawsuit. It reminds us of the ninth commandment. Don’t bear false witness against your neighbor, which is applying directly to a court situation.
Old Testament commentator John Kitchen writes, in a society where frivolous lawsuits have created gridlock in the judicial system, this is a word we need to hear. I’m going to sue, and you’ll be hearing from my lawyer, have become the battle cries, he writes, of people too weak to personally resolve their interpersonal conflicts. Such taunts reveal not wisdom, but the folly of selfishness. In a conflict, the one devoid of wisdom has nothing left but to demand his quote-unquote rights.
Being a neighbor gives us unique access to people’s lives, certain people’s lives that are around us. We must never use that information that we have against them for our own advantage. It’s not good to live like this, obviously, but it’s also not wise.
Notice again the reason scripture says you should not act like this, the end of verse 26, for he trusts you and lives near you. These kinds of actions and words disrupt a community’s sense of safety and trust. If someone can just come out of nowhere and accuse you of wrongdoing without cause, then who can let their guard down, not even those who live with integrity? If a neighbor close by is the one who caused the damages to your property, then who’s safe even in their own house? This proves the foolishness of being a bad neighbor. For as a resident of your own neighborhood, you will suffer the same uncertainties you’ve created in the lives of others. So what if we stopped and put all of this in reverse?
We would find that the best way to renew a neighborhood is not to get government funding to redo the sidewalks and add more lighting and increase the presence of police as helpful as those things might be, but simply to be a good neighbor. For example, have you ever lived in a neighborhood where everybody waved to everybody else? Well, how many bad guys are going to want to go through a neighborhood where everybody’s waving at them? Devious people can’t stand the amount of attention that neighborly hospitality brings. But in a neighborhood where everyone is keeping to themselves and treating everyone else as if they were strangers, well, that’s easy pickings for someone who’s up to no good. Back to Jane Jacobs, she writes, the first fundamental of a successful city life is this, people must take a modicum of public responsibility for each other, even if they have no ties to each other.
So, what makes a good neighbor and a wise neighbor? Well, State Farm knows, like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. And they’re not referring to merely being present to watch your calamity, but available to help and to jump in. They notice your need. A good neighbor notices a need and steps in to help, like Frankie’s mom, rather than all the other people who are watching me.
Do you want a brighter, happier, and safer neighborhood to live in? Wave to your neighbors. You can create the culture by being hospitable. You can reinforce safety by noticing needs. It’s wise to be a good neighbor. It not only immediately benefits the one that you’re helping, but it will come back to benefit you when this ethic has taken root in your community, in your family, in your workplace, in your neighborhood, even your church. So imagine if we took the Lord’s wisdom to heart here. How would that transform our neighborhoods and cities? Being a good neighbor is good. Being a good neighbor is wise. So now let’s think, how have we done? How have we been doing with this?
Well, just look around and see how obviously we fail as a human race. The primary cause of our problems in society is not a lack of government funding or a lack of consistent policing. The primary cause of our problems in society lies within us, the very citizens of the society, the very neighbors of the community.
Thinking back to our passage, did you notice the ever-progressing intensity of these verses? It began with passive words and actions, verses 27 and 28, then grew to active words and actions in verses 29 and 30. So what’s next? Would you outright harm someone out of the blue? This is where verse 31 goes, naming the violent man. And it diagnoses the disease as a disease of the heart, envy. Envy is a seed that grows into all kinds of hate and evil.
Sometimes in life, here’s how it works. Sometimes in life, we see bad neighbors get away with their crafty plans. We see coworkers cutting corners and taking advantage of a little glitch. We see people in the community taking over shared spaces and resources that were meant to be available for everyone.
We see shady insurance claims and fraudulent lawsuits bring some people great profit. And on the one hand, we despise it when we see it, but we say in our hearts, that’s not right. But on the other hand, it’s so easy, isn’t it, for seed of envy to start growing in our own life, a temptation for us to compromise in our own ways, similar to theirs, out of a desire to get ahead in some way or score some small profit. So the wisdom of God offers us this important warning from our passage, it says, Do not envy a violent man and choose any of his ways.
We’re not seeing the full picture. There might be a temporary gain in a one-off trick, but you’ll be compromising the trust which is vital for the flourishing of the community in which you live. You can get caught up in a great deal of trouble, much more than you ever thought of, and the Lord himself will be sure to bring justice.
Verse 32 states the reason. The devious are detestable to the Lord, which is why, as verses 33 to 35 state, the Lord’s curse is on the household of the wicked. Verse 34, he mocks those who mock. Verse 35, he holds up fools to dishonor. On one level, the Lord’s curse is on the household of the wicked through his providence, his ordinary work through his design of life. His world is still operating under his good design despite its fallen condition. And thus, it still contains its own natural correctives. This is where we get the old adage, a life of crime doesn’t pay.
It will catch up to you. You’ll feel it in your relationships breaking down, your career slowing down, your own mental health breaking down as you grow ever more anxious of being found out. If you are working against the very design of how God created life to be lived, you will only trip yourself up eventually. And when you do, the consequences might be far greater than you ever thought could be possible.
But there’s also a second, final, and ultimate dimension of the Lord fulfilling what he’s saying in verses 33 to 35. It’s what scripture refers to as a final judgment. The great and awesome day of the Lord where all people will stand before him. Scripture says in Daniel chapter 12 that all will be raised before the Lord. the righteous and the wicked, to stand before him, for each to receive their due. And the common damnation that is passed out that day will not merely pertain to the wrong things we’ve done, but it’ll also pertain to that first category of our passage that we saw, the good things we’ve left undone. Scripture says in James 4, verse 17, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
So it is that although comparing ourselves to others in society, we might find the majority among us to be pretty good neighbors. But before the Lord, we know there’s no one righteous. No, not one. All have turned away in different ways from his good design for life and his calling on our life. We’ve all contributed to the breakdown of the communities in which we are part of. We’ve all sinned and fallen short of his glory.
But thanks be to God, there’s more to verse 32. The second half of verse 32 says the Lord is a friend to the upright. For all the warnings and curses and judgment that are promised to the wicked, there is blessing and grace and honor to those who repent and turn to the Lord.
This is the good news of the gospel. Though we were sinners, the Lord didn’t leave us as we are. but came down and offered the renewal of friendship in Jesus Christ. This brings us to the third neighbor of our passage, a new neighbor. God moved in to restore the rundown neighborhood of our world.
The CSB Christian Standard Bible says that he is a friend to the uprights, verse 32. Other English translations will say he takes the upright into his confidence. In Old English translation says, his secret is with the righteous. This is what the Hebrew term for friend refers to. A person who brings you into the workings of their daily life. One who invites you to collaborate together with them and confide in them. We could just abbreviate this and say friend.
In the context of Proverbs chapter three, the Lord is saying he is the good neighbor that we all need. This is exactly how the Apostle John described the incarnation. If you remember John 1, verse 14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. The cultural background of nomads and shepherds gives us a vivid understanding of what this means, the significance of this. The word for dwelt is connected to their word for tent. So what he’s saying, the imagery is Jesus packed up his tent in heaven. He saw our plot of land we were in, and he came and pitched it so he could live next to us. He came from heaven down to earth. He moved into the messed up neighborhood of planet earth in order to renew it.
And what do we know about Jesus’s life after that? I mean, even non-believers know that Jesus was the perfect neighbor, wasn’t he? In his life, he elevated the lowly, for example, the sick, the poor, and the widow. He elevated them to their rightful place in society as those who are cared for and dignified. Jesus exposed, on the other hand, our selfish assumptions of what we thought it meant to be a good neighbor, as we see in the parable of the Good Samaritan.
And in his death, Jesus paid our debt. He paid it off before God on the cross. This was the purpose for which he came, to fulfill all righteousness before God and to pay the penalty for our sin so that we could be forgiven of our sin and welcomed into friendship with God.
Because Jesus fulfilled the purpose, this purpose for which he was sent, God raised him from the dead in incorruptible glory as a preview of the kind of renewal that he was going to bring to all people, in every neighborhood, in all creation. Even now, while we wait for the renewal of all things, even now, heaven is breaking in to earth through the Holy Spirit who’s present with us. The Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead and is given to everyone who trusts in Jesus.
We ourselves are made new, and the Holy Spirit is the deposit of our inheritance that’s coming. This is the ultimate fulfillment of verse 35. It says, the wise will inherit honor. And the ultimate fulfillment of that is gonna be incorruptible glory of new creation.
Therefore, as God’s people, we should be ambitiously pursuing the renewal of our neighborhoods with the empowerment of what God has called us to do, in light of what he has done for us. And we can afford to do this, despite what progress we may or may not find in this life, because our ultimate hope is not set on things in this world, for we are expectantly hoping the renewal of all things in a city which is to come.
So if you’re here today and you’re not a Christian, we want you to know the Lord, and the people of the church want you to know the Lord. You might believe in him as God, You would never think of him as a friend. You can know God as a friend through Jesus. And God is not like any neighbor you’ve ever had. There’s no envy in him. There is no hidden motives behind his greeting. There is no pretense in his offer of the gospel through Jesus.
And it’s only after receiving a new kind of friendship with God through Jesus that we then can be the kind of neighbors he created us to be. because only now are we doing our good neighborly deeds with the right motive of honoring God under the framework of his good design for life.
In other words, when the message of the gospel finally goes from our head and reaches our heart, it will radically change the way you understand what it means to be a good neighbor. Look back at what friendship with God brings to our life, verses 33 to 35.
The Lord blesses the home of the righteous, He gives grace to the humble. He bequeaths honor to the wise as their inheritance. The common world in which we live might be good neighbors to one another when it’s convenient for them, when it doesn’t cost too much. But because the Lord has promised to honor and glorify his children as their inheritance, we can be set free to be good neighbors now, even when it’s inconvenient and costs us quite a bit. The common world might be good neighbors to their buddies from work, or to others in their social economic class, or to others from whom they wish to earn favor. But because the Lord has befriended us, we who are so far away from his glorious state of holiness and righteousness, we can be set free to pursue the good of those to whom we have little in common, or maybe nothing in common.
The common world’s hope for renewed society is found in this life alone, And this can leave us to claw tooth and nail for our rights and comforts in competition with those we live around. But because Jesus rose from the dead, we’re set free from the pressure to make our lives a heaven here on earth. We might still be discouraged when we don’t see the progress that we’d hoped for in this world, but we won’t be crushed now. We can display a resilient hope that endures the struggles of this life. Here’s the point. As God’s people, we don’t want to just be good neighbors. We want to be the kind of neighbors for whom the gospel is the only explanation. And imagine if we took the Lord’s wisdom to heart. How would that transform our neighborhoods and cities? How would that transform your workplace? How could that transform your family? How could that transform our own church families?
We not only need to be good neighbors in order to renew the communities around us, we need to be good neighbors so that the watching world around us can know what our God is like and be compelled to receive his friendship through Jesus. Let me take a moment now to pray. Heavenly Fathers, we’ve considered your word. It gets us every time. It doesn’t leave anyone off the hook. and yet you always are faithful to provide a word of comfort and hope, which we know as the gospel. May we receive this again, this encouragement, and may we be built up evermore into the very image and likeness of our savior, Jesus Christ. It’s in his name that we pray, amen.