Day 628: A neighbour from heaven - Proverbs 25 vs 16 - 18

16 If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you have your fill of it and vomit it. 17 Let your foot be seldom in your neighbour's house, lest he have his fill of you and hate you. 18 A man who bears false witness against his neighbour is like a war club, or a sword, or a sharp arrow. Proverbs 25:16-18 (English Standard Version)

Neighbours! They can be nice or they can be a nightmare. Then again, as we are also a neighbour to someone, that can be true of us as well. What is the wise advice that Solomon gives in vs 17?

Just as too much honey can make a person sick (vs 16), so too much of a neighbour can turn a relationship sour. Calling too often on a neighbour can make one look like a 'busybody' or a gossip. That will especially be true if one is always borrowing stuff – and sometimes forgetting to return it! But who is our neighbour?

That's the question a lawyer asked Jesus after Jesus had reminded him how the Law of Moses is well summed up by the words: “You shall 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 your neighbour as yourself.” (Luke 10:27-28) Jesus went on to tell him of a man who was brutally attacked and robbed on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. Two people came upon the scene, but hurried on by. The only one who stopped to help him turned out to be a Samaritan (whom the Jews despised). Jesus asked the lawyer which of the three proved to be a neighbour to the man who fell among the robbers? “The one who showed him mercy” the lawyer replied. And Jesus said, “You go, and do likewise.” We see that neighbour in the Bible doesn't only mean those who live next door. It's speaking of our fellow men and women and society as a whole.

So vs 18 of today's reading wasn't only about giving false evidence against an immediate neighbour – but it's the evil of lying about anyone in the community. A King named Ahab had a neighbour named Naboth who owned a lovely vineyard right next door to the palace. When Naboth didn't want to sell the land to the King, Ahab's wife arranged for 'worthless men' to falsely accuse Naboth, who was executed and his vineyard taken. Their false witness had indeed been like a club and an arrow.

The Bible's emphasis is not on complaining about neighbours we may have, but on being the sort of neighbour that brings honour to the Lord. In Chapter 3 vs 29 Solomon had said: “Don't be someone who plans evil against your neighbour, who dwells trustingly beside you.” And the apostle Paul expressed this truth well when he wrote to Christians in Rome and said: “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For 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: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore  love is the fulfilling of the law.” (Romans 13: 8-10)

The world can be a lonely place. There may be people carrying heavy burdens in our neighbourhood. They may even be next door or just down the road. And while we must take care to not be nosey or pushy, we mustn't be afraid to reach out in friendship so that we might be able to show something of God's love. Solomon goes on to say in a later chapter: “Don't forsake your friend and your father's friend, and don't go to your brother's house in the day of your calamity. Better is a neighbour who is near than a brother who is far away.” (Proverbs 27:10) Let's take to heart the words of Jesus when He urged the lawyer to be like the Samaritan who showed such compassion to a Jew who lay wounded and bleeding on the road to Jericho.