Help your neighbor - almost everyone knows this biblical commandment. But can everyone say with confidence that he follows it? For some people, helping those in need is a common thing. For others, it’s a whole problem that makes you think, help or not help, what kind of thing it will be. Yes, in life you always need to calculate your steps. But kindness, compassion and mercy have not been canceled. It is on them that humanity rests.
Doctrine of christ
Help your neighbor, Christ taught. Turning to the Bible, reading it, each person sees in it his own, that which he perceives because of his moral level of development. In life, it happens that often at the first call for help those people who do not go to church respond. But one who considers himself a Christian will not always rush to help his neighbor, justifying himself with hundreds of excuses. This is not an indication of a certain faith. This speaks of the internal understanding of man, of his attitude to his neighbors. Probably, it’s not enough to consider yourself a Christian and go to church, they need to be in the soul.
Different people nothing in life can be perceived unambiguously. Someone under the neighbors understands relatives, friends, someone co-religionists. But even regular parishioners who regularly visit the temple do not always consider their neighbors those who come to the temple for the first time for some reason. In most cases, a person comes to the temple to the Lord in despair. After all, Jesus Christ considered all people to be neighbors.
Parable of the Good Samaritan
Which neighbors to help? The Lord himself gives us an example in the gospel by telling his disciples a parable about the good Samaritan. In it, he tells the story that one Jew was robbed and half-beaten by robbers. Co-religionists passing by, including a priest, did not help him. Each of them found a reason to leave as soon as possible. And only a passing Samaritan helped him. He bandaged his wounds, delivered to the village and gave money to take care of him until he recovered.
Samaritans are people who came in Judea, who were treated as strangers. What is this simple story talking about? Not always those who are considered neighbors are ready to help. Often they are provided by those whom we do not know and do not hope for their support. Most priests, when interpreting this parable, say that by the Samaritan Jesus meant himself, calling us to follow him.
"Help others." How to do it?
Each person decides for himself. Christ said that it is necessary to help people quietly, doing this not for his glory, but in the name of the Lord. Do not wait for any reward or gratitude for this. Because it is done primarily for your soul. By helping another, you are helping yourself. It cannot be a good thing if a person in him is looking for benefits or good for himself. Just help your neighbor and you will be rewarded. God's commandment calls us not to think, but to act.
One must be prepared for the fact that instead of gratitude one can meet indifference, and sometimes even condemnation. After all, people are different. Some believe that the whole world is created to help them, to fulfill all their desires. Often a person who is in trouble is shocked, is in such a degree of despair that he simply is not able to realize and accept someone's help. In this case, waiting for gratitude is silly.
Good for good
You have done a good deed. Everything else is on the conscience of those whom you have helped. Gratitude is their problem. Everyone is responsible for his actions himself. This should not deprive the desire to help one's neighbor. In the war, people, risking their lives, fed captured soldiers, sheltered them from enemies. At the same time, they asked the Lord that on the way of their husbands or children who are at the front, good people meet who could support or help them.
This is another commandment of God, which says that you need to relate to people the way you want people to relate to you. Help your neighbors, and in difficult times you will meet kind and helpful people.
Can good bring evil?
Almost everyone faced a situation in which a drunkard asks for money. A normal person immediately faces the question - to give or not to give, since in most cases he does this to drink again. Hence, the giver contributes to evil, the further fall of man. It is also not a secret that the majority of those who ask for alms are a tool of scammers who make a lot of money, taking advantage of the fact that Christians have such a commandment - help your neighbor.
What to do in this case? Most clergymen answer what to give. Since we do not know whether the fraudster is in front of us or really suffering, who needs money. To drink or not to drink, to be honest or not - these are the personal problems of those who ask. Most people think it's just “parasites, " living off others who don’t want to work. It's not our business to judge.
Simple story
Once a priest of a small town forbade beggars to stand on the church porch and beg for alms. He simply suggested that everyone who needs work to rebuild the temple or do all the work possible in it for a fee. As you know, there were not many who wanted to.
Only two came. Grandmothers said: "Bitter drinkers, which of them are workers." One really soon washed down, the other with the help of work and daily conversations with his father Vasily fought desperately with his addiction, and the result was his return to normal life, his family. This priest is right, he helped a person to realize himself, to remember who he really is.
Who needs help
Sometimes giving alms is not enough. A person needs participation, but is it always the one who wants to help that can do it. There is no single recipe for how to support a person and whether he needs it. After all, not everyone knows how to ask for help. There are people who will disappear, but never dare to bother others with their requests. There are people of a different plan, they always ask for something. This is the principle of their life. So who needs help?
Is it always necessary to help one's neighbor
A true Christian should not have such a question. Imagine a person whom the suffering person asks for help. And that, instead of helping, stands and argues whether this should be done. No, a true Christian will help at the call of his heart. Help is not always expressed in money. Often, simple human participation, attention can save a neighbor.
Seeing a man lying on the ground, many hurriedly pass by, thinking that he is drunk. And if this is not so? A simple call to an ambulance can save him. Do not pass by and do not look for excuses for yourself. Do a good deed - help your neighbor and be rewarded to you.
In the first epistle of John, ch. 3, v. 22, he says that keeping the commandments of God, we will be rewarded. “And whatever we ask, we will receive from him …” Help people, even if you don’t have the opportunity to help financially. After all, simple participation is also help. It is important for a person to realize that he is not alone, it gives strength and confidence.
