THE IMPLICATION OF DESPISING PEOPLE

 JUST THINKING:

A neighbor is a person who lives near another, or one living or located near another, or a person or thing that is near another and one's fellow human being. A neigbour could also be one’s colleague in the office, a fellow bus passenger, a friend and so on.

Many of us have had some very good neigbours over the years and some have had some very difficult and troublesome ones. However, we all as neigbours should live in harmony, help ourselves and look out for each other. But this will only happen in a very perfect scenario because of people's mentality, background, experiences and level of exposure.

There are some people who do not want others living around them. Also, due to their racist and tribalistic nature, some people want to live far from others or associate with people of their kind, tribe and race. A few will only live and associate with the rich and not the poor. But we all should be able to live together no matter our status. If i may ask, did you know that the way you live with and think about your neighbor affects you?

Proverbs 14:20&21 says, “The poor man is hated even by his neighbor, but those who love the rich are many. He who despises his neighbor sins [against God and his fellow man], but happy [blessed and favored by God] is he who is gracious and merciful to the poor”.

From the above scripture, a neigbour can hate and despise his fellow neighbor if the neigbour is poor. People could also despise their neigbours if he is not up to their status, as knowledgeable as they are, and as educated and exposed as they are. Some do not even talk or relate with their so called poor neigbours because they feel and think that it is a let down on them to condescend to their levels. 

Remember that a neigbour could be your friend, colleague, next door neigbour and so on. But when you look down or despise them, you sin against God. When you get promoted before your colleagues and this makes you look down on them, you sin against God. Also, when you despise others because you feel, think and know that they are higher or more intelligent than they are, you have not only sinned against God but against yourself. Ridiculously, some despise others because they think they are more beautiful and anyone who is not beautiful, handsome or have money, they despise or make jest of the persons. The truth is that many of us despise others for one or two reasons without realizing that we are endangering ourselves.

As long as you are not in their league, they will despise you. But they are shooting themselves in the leg by despising their neigbhours because any time they do it, they sin against God and man. This may sound strange to us but it is a sin to despise people for any reason. If you have been doing it, you need to repent of it and stop doing it.