But My Neighbor is a DOG!

When We Don’t Love Our Neighbors as Ourselves


Have you ever met a “friendly”? If you’ve been around a variety of cats, you probably have. Let me explain.

Friendlies are the cats who love everybody. A friendly doesn’t know such things as strangers exist. My parents have a barn cat named Dixie who is like that. Like Will Rogers, she’s never met a cat, dog, human or housefly she didn’t like. If left to herself, Dixie’s friendly naiveté would probably get her killed one day…if her people weren’t looking after her.

Shadow has no such issues. It took her weeks to warm up to me when we brought her home as a kitten. It took four years to form an uneasy truce between her and my husband. She had never been abused; she simply has a suspicious nature. As far as Shadow is concerned, she has a small family and no neighbors. She’s a stranger in a strange land, a tulip in the desert, a boll weevil in Nome, Alaska. The species doesn’t matter. If it’s too big to pick on—so anything larger than a cricket—it’s big enough to fear or disdain.

Separate ends of the spectrum, Dixie and Shadow. Their polar oppositions are good lessons for us, though. Where do we fall on that Dixie-to-Shadow scale? Are we the friendlies, or the suspicious minds?

Too often, I think we follow Shadow’s neurotic cue. I’m not just talking about picking up saw-carrying hitchhikers, either. As we carry on our daily activities, we sometimes treat those we encounter more as potential serial killers than as beloved neighbors.

“But I’m not a bad person,” you may be saying. “I’m just careful.”

That’s true. Whether we’re talking about Shadow, me or you, most unlovely behavior isn’t driven by a desire to harm. It’s fear, pure and simple. Even in our churches and families, it’s easy to let self-preservation conquer self-sacrifice. But that’s not an adequate excuse. We have the most direct of commands to the contrary.

“The second [commandment] is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:31).

“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12).

“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).

Or, how about a parable, much quoted but not often lived?

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"

He answered: " '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, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'

"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"

The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."

Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise." (Luke 10:25-37, NIV)

It’s not always easy. Fear is a powerful motivator. Often, fear is the most powerful motivator. But “perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). We can’t achieve such perfection on our own. Fortunately, we have something Shadow doesn’t…an author and perfector of our faith, who didn’t let fear keep Him from His appointment with the cross. Rather, love was what drove him there. If we show a fraction of that love to our fellow beings, a slight overflow from that pool of Divine love, we can change the world.

So, let’s remember that and take our cue from Dixie rather than Shadow. Let’s be a bit more friendly to our neighbors!