Thought for the Week: Love your neighbour

Ian Kirk-Smith introduces an issue dedicated to the refugee crisis

by Ian Kirk-Smith 16th June 2017

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in… (Matthew 25:35)

Matthew 25 suggests that Christians should see everyone as ‘Christ’ in the flesh. Indeed, scholars argue that in the New Testament, ‘stranger’ and ‘neighbour’ are, in fact, synonymous. Thus the Golden Rule, ‘love your neighbour as yourself,’ refers not just to people you know – your ‘neighbours’– but also to people you do not know.