LOVE OF NEIGHBOR
A Reality

"WHO really is my neighbor?" a first-century lawyer asked Jesus. No doubt he expected Jesus to say, 'Your fellow Jews.' But in a story about a neighborly Samaritan, Jesus showed that people of other nationalities also are our neighbors.—Luke 10:29-37; John 4:7-9.

Jesus emphasized that, next to love of God, love of neighbor should govern our lives. (Matthew 22:34-40) But has any group of people ever truly loved their neighbors? Early Christians did! They were noted for the love they had for others.—John 13:34, 35.

What about today? Is Christlike love practiced by anybody? The Encyclopedia Canadiana observes: "The work of Jehovah's Witnesses is the revival and re-establishment of the primitive Christianity practised by Jesus and his disciples . . . All are brothers."

What does that mean? It means that Jehovah's Witnesses allow nothing—neither race, nationality, nor ethnic background—to cause them to hate their neighbors. Nor will they kill anyone, for they have figuratively beaten their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears. (Isaiah 2:4) The Witnesses, in fact, are noted for taking the initiative to help their neighbors.—Galatians 6:10.

No wonder an editorial in California's Sacramento Union noted: "Suffice it to say that if all the world lived by the creed of the Jehovah Witnesses there would be an end of bloodshed and hatred, and love would reign as king." A writer in Hungary's Ring magazine remarked: "I have come to the conclusion that if Jehovah's Witnesses were the only ones living on the earth, wars would cease to exist, and the only duties of the policemen would be to control traffic and to issue passports."

Admittedly though, a huge, worldwide change will be needed if all people are to love one another. How will that change come?