A familiar Bible saying, checked in context
Love thy neighbour as thyself
Word for word
The KJV phrase appears in Leviticus 19:18 and in Jesus' discussion of commandments.
By @The..Mustard..Seed · Updated
Read the relevant KJV passage
Leviticus 19:18Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.
Matthew 22:39And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Compare the evidence
A questioner asks Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?” That question opens the Good Samaritan story.
Luke 10:29But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?
At the story’s end Jesus asks who acted as neighbour and tells the questioner to do likewise.
Luke 10:37And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.
What the context adds
The command appears in Leviticus 19:18 and is repeated by Jesus in Matthew 22:39. Its exact KJV form is easy to verify, but the question “who is my neighbour?” needs more than a word check. Luke 10:25–37 answers with a story of a wounded traveler and a Samaritan who stops to help. The question is redirected from identifying a safe category of people to acting as a neighbor. Romans 13:9, Galatians 5:14, and James 2:8 also repeat the command in their own arguments. Those links show its reach without making every passage interchangeable.
A question to carry forward
In Luke’s story, who asks about the neighbor, and how does Jesus turn the question around?
Keep reading
Read Leviticus 19:11–18, Matthew 22:34–40, and Luke 10:25–37; notice how Jesus answers the question “Who is my neighbour?”
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