Romans 13:8-10
Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
I can’t read the words “Love your neighbour as yourself” without thinking about snails and ginger beer. But I take comfort in knowing that I’m not alone in this affliction. Many, many thousands of people are in the same boat. We haven’t all suffered some collective trauma, but we have all studied English law.
To clarify. On 26th August 1928, a certain Mrs Donoghue was with a friend who bought her a ginger-beer from the Wellmeadow Café in Paisley. She drank about half of the contents straight from the bottle, which was made of dark opaque glass, then the remainder was poured into a tumbler. At which point, the decomposed remains of a snail floated out, causing her alleged shock and severe gastro-enteritis.
Due to the intricacies of the law which I won’t go into, Mrs Donoghue’s claim against the ginger beer manufacturer made it all the way to the House of Lords, in the case known as Donoghue v Stevenson. The Lords were being asked to decide whether the manufacturer owed a duty of care to the ultimate consumer – whoever that was even though they had no contract with them. Seems obvious these days but it wasn’t back then.
In delivering his judgment Lord Atkin said this (a statement I once knew by heart):
“The rule that you are to love your neighbour becomes in law, you must not injure your neighbour: and the lawyer’s question, Who is my neighbour? receives a restricted reply. You must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which you can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure your neighbour.
Who, then, in law, is my neighbour?
The answer seems to be — persons who are so closely and directly affected by my act that I ought reasonably to have them in contemplation as being so affected when I am directing my mind to the acts or omissions which are called in question.”
In other words, if you’re a ginger beer manufacturer you should take reasonable care that nobody will be injured by drinking your product. It’s hard to imagine that such a basic level of care could ever be argued against, but thankfully in this case, the consumer won.
Lord Atkin was settling a legal point but, thanks to him, these words – love your neighbour – have been taught to thousands, maybe even millions of people who might otherwise never have heard them. I think of him as a sort of accidental evangelist. This concept wasn’t new to Jews of course – it is recorded in Leviticus and Jesus refers to it in the sermon on the mount. And the question “who is my neighbour” prompted Jesus to tell the parable of the Good Samaritan.
Lord Atkin tempered the words of scripture. He spoke about not injuring people. And only those people you could be considered to have a duty of care towards. Paul’s words in Romans (and he may have been quoting Jesus, or Leviticus, we don’t know for sure) – love your neighbour as yourself – are so much more embracing, carry so much more weight, and are so much more difficult to fulfil.
But they are imperative. Lord Atkin’s words are still relevant, still carry weight – they still mean something – but they are qualified. They have get out clauses. There is no get out in what the scripture says.
Love your neighbour as yourself. Full stop. End of. No appeal to the House of Lords.
So there are two questions we need to ask ourselves. Who are our neighbours, and how do we love them?
So, at the risk of sounding like a law lord – who is our neighbour? In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus taught us that our neighbour is not limited to those who live next door or share our faith, ethnicity, or social status. Our neighbour is anyone in need, regardless of their background or circumstances. The neighbour is the stranger on the roadside, the hungry child, the person oppressed by society. Our neighbour is every soul we encounter on our life’s journey.
And how do we love them? Well, that’s the really tricky part. But we have a perfect example in Jesus Christ – during his earthly ministry he demonstrated boundless compassion. He healed the sick, fed the hungry, and forgave sinners. He spent time with the outcast and the unclean. He showed us how to behave towards each other.
But this type of love – a love rooted in compassion and action – can be difficult and costly.
Many of the things Jesus did were counter-cultural. They caused ripples amongst the people and the authorities. He healed on the Sabbath; he allowed women to sit and listen to his teaching; he associated with tax collectors (the collaborators with the Roman oppressors); he dealt compassionately with beggars and lepers.
In a society marked by rigid social hierarchies and discrimination based on gender, ethnicity, and social status, Jesus preached a message of inclusivity and equality. He welcomed women, children, Samaritans, and those considered outcasts by society, treating them with dignity and respect.
Step outside our front doors and we don’t have to look very hard to find the equivalent of those people today. In some places women are still treated as second class citizens. We have the hungry and the homeless on our streets. We see the refugees, the immigrants, the lonely, the people of the LGBTQ+ community. All of these are people who are treated as undesirable by various sections of our society. Sometimes even by our churches.
And Jesus says we should love them. We should welcome them, we should care for them. Treat them with dignity and respect. And treat ourselves with dignity and respect.
But loving people, advocating for them and welcoming them comes at a price. I came across a quote recently which pulled me up a bit and caused me to re-evaluate myself. “If you call yourself an ally to a group of people and you aren’t getting hit by the stones being thrown at them, then you aren’t standing close enough” (Stan Mitchell). Being an ally is just another way of expressing love.
Which brings me to my final point. We’ve talked about neighbours and what it means to love them, but that isn’t the whole of the saying.
We are commanded to love our neighbours as ourselves. Sometimes, we use this as an insult. We’ve all heard people say “oh he loves himself that one” and of course, we shouldn’t be arrogant, or think we’re better than others, but we should love ourselves. And if we are loving others in the way that Jesus intended then we will need to care for ourselves.
One of my favourite sayings is “You can’t pour from an empty cup”. You can’t just give and give and give because eventually you will be empty. You have to receive too. And again, Jesus is our example. He went away by himself to pray. He went to weddings. He spent time with friends and allowed others to care for him and to feed him. Too often we think following Christ’s example and obeying his commands just means we should serve, and give and do. But it’s also about resting and receiving.
So, let’s renew that commitment to love our neighbours as ourselves. Because it’s a good thing to do and because Jesus said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” (Matthew 22:34-39).[1]
Let’s remember that our neighbours are all around us, all the time, not just at home. And let’s think about how we can care for ourselves too.
God, Life and Me 