General

It is often said that you should “love thy neighbours as yourself”, a very famous verse from the Holy Scriptures. Neighbours may be defined as the closest persons next to your place of abode. They might be your family members, relatives, friends, and even a stranger that is living next to your doorstep. In some instances, neighbours may refer to countries, states and kingdoms. The relationship may vary depending on the type of environment, the culture that molded a person or a community, and to some extent, the personality of a person. The close relationship between neighbours in the past is unquestionable. People believed in the saying “No man is an island”. They depended on each other in order to survive. Great empires in the past, for example, did not rely only on their own community but also on other neighbouring empires to trade their products and services and vice versa. They formed allies to have stronger political, economic and social environment. However, this may have been true few decades ago. With the changing environment, it was inevitable that close relationship among neighbours changed also.

In this present dispensation, people strive to be more independent and stand alone. Unlike before, instead of the whole family living in a specific community from generations to generations, family members are now free to leave the common environment where they were raised. The close family tie that binds family members living in a community as neighbours diminishes as they strive for being independent and away from their traditional community. In the Philippines, having strong close family ties is one of the core values of families. Nonetheless, this family trait has been fading nowadays. In order to address this, the value of a family as a basic foundation of a community must be given high importance. But the definition of a family must not be limited only to those of next of kin. Members of the same group must adopt the principle of loving thy neighbours as thy family.

A man, by nature, is social as they say. However, with the current trends, a man becomes self-centred. A typical example of this is when a person tries to cope with the demand of cost of living in these modern times. With the busy schedule, mostly, he unconsciously starts to forget how to socialize. Because of the unlimited wants in life, man becomes unfamiliar with his surroundings, without even knowing his neighbours. The more complicated life is, the more struggles you have in dealing with another person. With this, man must not forget the importance of interacting with others. He must acknowledge the role of the society in humankind, which is, to help one another. In one way or the other, he is not the only person struggling to make a living.

To sum it up, close relationship among neighbours may not be the same as in the past and times may change. Social entities such as our neighbours play a vital role in our communities and our lives. You may exist alone for certain point in time but never all the time. Neighbours can help in times of need. Good neighbours’ relationship increases the chance to live peacefully. In the end, a friend nearby is better than relatives far away (Proverbs 27:10).