50 Ways to Love Your Neighbor

What does it mean to love your neighbor? Scripture talks about this concept over and over. The Messiah mentioned these words just following his proclamation that loving YHWH is the most important commandment. 1 John 3:18 says that our love should be more than just words, it should be seen through our actions. Too often the action of this instruction gets lost to good intentions or busyness. Here are some practical ideas on how to show love in your community.

Fifty Ways to Love Your Neighbor:

1. Smile, wave, and say hello. Cultivate a friendly community atmosphere.

2. Look for opportunities to do good, especially to those who share a common faith with you.

3. Take a walk through your neighborhood and pray for the health, safety, and well-being of the residents.

4. Holding a grudge? Choose forgiveness and let go of that.

5. Encourage someone and build them up.

6. Say nice things about your neighbors. Cultivate an atmosphere of kindness over gossip or slander.

7. Visit orphans and widows. Offer support to those without family nearby. That could mean supporting a children's home, visiting a nursing home, becoming a foster family or adopting a child, sponsoring a child, checking in on elderly neighbors, etc.

8. Have things to downsize from your home? Offer them to friends or family, or donate items to a good cause. Thrift stores are an option but donations are also accepted by homeless and women's shelters, schools, ministries, and so on.

9. Support your local farmers. Get vegetables from a produce stand or a nearby farmers market.

10. Bring in a healthy snack to share at work or congregation.

11. Take groceries, a gift card, or a meal to a family in need.

12. Get the door for someone with their hands full.

13. Spread the word about garage sales and local businesses.

14. Volunteer at a charity working in your community.

15. Pay a visit to an elderly neighbor or nursing home.

16. Plant flowers in your yard. They brighten days and feed the bees.

17. Keep your home exterior and yard tidy, and pick up trash when you see it.

18. Be considerate about when you make a lot of noise. 

19. Make conversation with people you see regularly.

20. Ask people questions. This develops relationships and can be the touch of kindness someone needs in their day.

21. Did you get great service somewhere? Offer a tip, leave a positive review online, or speak to a manager or owner about what a great job an employee did.

22. Pay someone a sincere compliment.

23. Make it a point to welcome the new person at work.

24. Send a note of encouragement to someone.

25. Celebrate someone else's good news.

26. Write an uplifting Scripture in sidewalk chalk on your driveway to encourage those who walk by.

27. Offer an evening of free babysitting to parents who could use a break.

28. Start an informal community watch group in your neighborhood to keep things safe.

29. Are the neighborhood kids playing in the street? Talk to their parents about your concerns for their safety.

30. Send a card or care package to someone away at college, stationed overseas, or serving as a missionary.

31. Offer to help an elderly or disabled neighbor with yard work.

32. Thank a teacher, pastor, coach, fire fighter, coworker, volunteer, etc. for how the impact they have made in your life.

33. Host a potluck to get to know neighbors better.

34. See someone who is being treated unfairly? Stand up for them.

35. Make it a point to include a shy or unpopular person in conversation and events.

36. Shop locally before heading to a box store or ordering online. Visit locally owned restaurants before heading to a chain.

37. Pray for insight on how to best show the Father's love to the people in your life.

38. Offer to pray with a friend when they share a need or concern.

39. Share your resources or knowledge with someone who could use a hand on a project.

40. Drive safely!

41. Invite someone you don't know very well for dinner or over for coffee.

42. Treat strangers and foreigners with kindness and respect, whether that's a refugee or someone who just moved from the next town.

43. Did you attend a community theater production or watch a high school basketball game? Offer sincere compliments or encouragement to those involved.

44. Share info about nearby job openings for those in need of employment.

45. Invite someone to join you for congregation or Bible study.

46. Set up a place for free stuff at your office or congregation, or host a clothing swap.

47. Use your social media to share truth and encouragement.

48. If a friend or neighbor loaned you something return it within a reasonable time frame, in good condition, with a thank you.

49. When you talk to others, speak the truth to them.

50. Offer mercy to those who wrong you. Pray for them and remember that everyone has bad days.

There are so many ways to love your neighbor! Sometimes what a person needs is an uplifting conversation, other times bringing a meal over speaks volumes. What are some ways that you have felt loved by your community?

The Bible's Definition of Love (2 John 6)

Here we examine what the Bible means by the word love. We will see that it's more than just feelings towards someone, and through the correct understanding of this fruit of the Spirit we will better understand Bible verses like John 3:16 and other Scriptures on love.

What is love? This question has been asked by nearly everyone, from great poets and philosophers to modern pop musicians to young children. I know for a long time I thought love was a warm and fuzzy feeling that you would get when you really liked something or someone.

So I'd read Bible verses and think they meant things like this:

God liked the world so much that he gave his only son for it. (John 3:16)

Let all you do be done feeling like you really like it. (1 Corinthians 16:4)

Let the morning bring word of your unfailing good feelings towards me. (Psalm 143:8)

We like him because he first liked us. (1 John 4:9)

Be patient, bearing with one another with good feelings. (Ephesians 4:2)

Like your neighbor as much as you like yourself. (Leviticus 19:18, Matthew 22:39)

I could go on because there are plenty of verses that talk about love in the Bible, in the Old Testament and new, but I'm sure you get the idea because I think we have all been there. We have all realized that plenty of our neighbors, we don't like at all, let alone as much as ourselves. Maybe you've felt guilty because you just don't like praise and worship music as much as you like pop songs. Or wondered how on earth you can have nothing but giddy feelings about God in all of your heart and mind.

Interestingly the Bible gives us a definition of love in 2 John 6:

"Love is this: that we should live according to his commands."

If we take our idea of love, those feelings of fondness or liking something, that doesn't really fit here. Liking something a lot is living by commands? What kind of sense does that make? How did commandments get involved with feelings? The Bible is saying that real love is seen through actions, because the Bible is saying that love is something greater than a feeling, no matter how strong that feeling might be.

N.T. Wright says that when you see the word love in the Bible, it's shorthand for covenant faithfulness. I think that's the most concise explanation of 2 John 6 or the Biblical meaning of love. My mental connection of 'love' with 'feelings' can often cloud my understanding of many Biblical passages, but when you read "covenant faithfulness" in place of love, you can understand Bible verses in deeper ways.

Because God was so faithful to the covenant, he sent his only son. (John 3:16)

Let all you do be done in faithfulness to the covenant. (1 Corinthians 16:4)

Let the morning bring word of your unfailing faithfulness to me. (Psalm 143:8)

We can be faithful to him because he was first faithful to us. (1 John 4:9)

Be patient, bearing with one another with covenant faithfulness. (Ephesians 4:2)

Nothing can ever separate us from God's covenant faithfulness. (Romans 8:38)

This concept also sheds extra light unto 2 John 6, in that it directly links love and commandment keeping through covenant faithfulness. When we keep Biblical commandments, that is how we can be faithful to our covenant with YHWH. This fits with what the Messiah said in John 14:15 that if we love him we would keep his commandments.

"Love is this: that we should live according to his commands."

We should take note here that when Jesus talked about the greatest commandments ("Love YHWH with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself."), he was not giving anyone a new idea. Many Christians think that in the Old Testament God was cold and distant and harsh, then Jesus came around and changed the narrative to love. This is not true. When the Messiah said these things he was directly quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 (part of the famous Hear O Israel or shema prayer) and Leviticus 19:18. God has always been love.

As his children, we are also called to love. Sometimes we will experience the feelings of love (and I believe that God genuinely does like us and have good feelings about us!), but when you're not full of the warm and fuzzies you are not some sort of failure. You can make the choice to continue being faithful to the God of creation. We do that by keeping his commands.

Related posts:

Is it Possible to Keep Biblical Law?
Understanding Acts 15
Keeping the Commandments Because We Love Messiah