By Brent Roberson

When Jesus was asked, “Who is my neighbor?” He answered with the story of the Good Samaritan. A wounded man lay beside the road. Religious men passed him by. The person who stopped was a Samaritan—a member of a group the listener had likely been taught to distrust.

Jesus did more than tell people to be kind. He made the outsider the example of mercy. He moved the question away from deciding who qualifies as our neighbor and toward a harder question: to whom will I choose to be a neighbor?

That question still challenges us. We live in a time when people are quickly separated by race, politics, income, geography, religion and history. We often know a person’s category before we know the person. Once the label is attached, it becomes easy to assume motives, dismiss experiences or decide that another person’s hardship is not our responsibility.

Listening is part of loving

Listening does not require us to surrender our convictions. It does require enough humility to consider that another person may have lived through something we have never experienced. A neighbor is not merely someone who agrees with us. A neighbor is a person whose dignity matters even when the conversation is difficult.

Real listening is more than remaining silent until it is our turn to speak. It means trying to understand what another person is saying, why it matters to them and what part of their story we may have overlooked. We may still disagree. But disagreement does not give us permission to stop seeing the person.

Love must become action

The Samaritan did not offer the wounded man a sympathetic opinion and continue down the road. He stopped. He treated the man’s wounds. He used his own resources. He made arrangements for continued care. Compassion became responsibility.

Our communities need that same kind of neighbor. Someone willing to encourage a young person, mentor a new business owner, help a family find a bed, listen to a person struggling with addiction or mental health, visit the lonely, support a farmer, teach a skill or open a door that has remained closed.

Christian love is not pity. Christian love is empowerment. It does not look down on another person and offer just enough help to feel generous. It recognizes God-given worth and asks what will help that person stand, grow and help someone else.

That kind of love reaches beyond prejudice, history, politics and self-interest. It does not pretend that wrong is right or that truth no longer matters. It simply refuses to use conviction as an excuse for indifference.

One neighbor at a time

We may not be able to repair every national division from Eastern North Carolina. We can decide what kind of neighbors we will be in Bertie, Edgecombe and Martin counties. We can sit at the same table. We can listen before answering. We can serve people who do not look like us, vote like us or live like us. We can invest in another person’s ability to rise.

The question is no longer only, “Who is my neighbor?” It is, “To whom will I choose to be a neighbor?”

And perhaps that is how God changes a nation—one neighbor at a time.

Learn about Hometown Together and Neighbor Table gatherings →

© 2026 Brent Roberson. All rights reserved.