Post-Tour Note: Critical Application

Having looked at the heart and the mind, how does that help us be more fruitful with our neighbors?

1. We now recognize that our neighbor’s actions, thoughts and emotions are not random or the result of “bad character” as much as they are simply “what comes out of the heart” as Jesus said—what our neighbor believes to be really real.

If he believes that Christians are all phonies and manipulators, then that is how he will see you. If he believes that his significance comes from things other than God, you will observe him in that desperate attempt to gain it—or, if he has learned that every time he tries to gain significance, he instead loses it, he will be reclusive trying to hold on to whatever significance he thinks he has.

We could go on forever here, but the key is to look at your neighbor not mainly through the external actions, but recognize he is acting out what is in his heart—what has been sown there from a myriad of time and places and circumstances—from an abused childhood to lectures in critical race theory in the university to Hollywood movies and music and everything in between.

If we desire to love our neighbor, we will come to understand these thing as our relationship with them grows.

2. We now realize that our actions also betray what is in our own heart—what we believe is really real. Does my neighbor irritate me? Why? What do I believe about my own script and will? Do I really believe that neighbor has been providentially placed next door by the sovereignty of God?

3. Our focus is no longer the head, but the heart. What do I believe? What does my neighbor believe? We no longer focus on the symptoms (what I/they say, feel, do) but we are now more interested in what I/they believe. This brings us back to the criticality of Truth and Love—true agape/chesed love that steadfastly and sacrificially seeks the true good, the shalom, of myself and my neighbor. And it reminds us that the power of the Holy Spirit is necessary for all of this—to produce this love within me as well as all the other spiritual fruit that I need, to give me wisdom in this relationship, and as the primary agent in moving truth from my and my neighbor’s head to our hearts.

I leave it to you and the rest of the group to think of other applications, for surely there are many.

May the Lord bless you as you do!