{"id":31771,"date":"2016-04-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csw-yeo.1wp.site\/magazines\/who-is-my-neighbour-3068\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T21:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T20:21:12","slug":"who-is-my-neighbour-3068","status":"publish","type":"magazines","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/magazines\/who-is-my-neighbour-3068\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is my neighbour?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/a8a23b25fa1b5066de50439492a652eb.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">When you ask Jesus a question, you have to be prepared to get an answer you didnt expect.<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan to answer someone who asked, \u201cWho is my neighbour?\u201d Jesus had just told him to \u201cLove your neighbour as yourself\u201d and the man wanted a bit more clarification on whom, exactly, he should consider to be his neighbour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The man was told that his neighbour is anyone who needs his help \u2013 and that really wasn\u2019t what he was expecting to hear. Especially since the person in the story who needed help, was someone he would have considered his enemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So what does this mean for us today? Recently some noted Christians have pointed out that if Jesus was telling the story of the Good Samaritan today, he might have told it about the Good Muslim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You might have heard various voices in the media speaking out as the refugee crisis unfolds, saying that we don\u2019t have any obligation to help those who aren\u2019t from our country. That we should help our own first of all. That we must close ranks, and look to our own interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But this isn\u2019t what Jesus taught. He taught us to look after others before we look after ourselves \u2013 to sacrifice ourselves in order to care for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s uncomfortable. Jesus knew what he said would be hard for his listeners to hear, but he didn\u2019t leave any room for ambiguous interpretations of his words. He told us that in order to inherit eternal life, we have to love the people we find hard to love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We have to love them in ways that will be difficult for us, in ways that will involve us giving up our comforts, and making financial and other sacrifices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At CSW we work for religious freedom for all. That means that everyone is entitled to choose and change their religion \u2013 to hold any belief, or none at all. To worship freely, in public and in private. This doesn\u2019t just apply to Christians, and it doesn\u2019t just apply to people who look like us, and those we find it easy to want to help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So the inescapable conclusion is that the refugees whose misery fills our screens, regardless of their religion or ethnicity, are our neighbours \u2013 ie, the people we need to love in the way that we love ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Jennifer Watkins<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Copywriter\/Editor<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you ask Jesus a question, you have to be prepared to get an answer you didnt expect.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":20319,"template":"","regions":[],"class_list":["post-31771","magazines","type-magazines","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazines\/31771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazines"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/magazines"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazines\/31771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41544,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazines\/31771\/revisions\/41544"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=31771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}