Love Toward Neighbor Commanded. The Bible, throughout, instructs one to exercise love, kindness, generosity, and helpfulness toward one’s neighbor, whether he be merely a dweller nearby, an associate, a companion, an intimate acquaintance, or a friend. The Law commanded: “With justice you should judge your associate [form of ʽa·mithʹ]. . . . You must not hate your brother in your heart. You should by all means reprove your associate, that you may not bear sin along with him . . . and you must love your fellow [form of reʹaʽ] as yourself.” (Le 19:15-18) (In the Greek Septuagint the word reʹaʽ is here translated by the Greek expression ho ple·siʹon.) David commends the man who “has not slandered with his tongue. To his companion [form of reʹaʽ] he has done nothing bad, and no reproach has he taken up against his intimate acquaintance [form of qa·rohvʹ].” (Ps 15:3) Repeated are the injunctions not to do harm to one’s fellowman (reʹaʽ), not even to despise him or to desire anything that belongs to him.​—Ex 20:16; De 5:21; 27:24; Pr 14:21.

The apostle Paul said: “He that loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.” He then names some of the commandments of the Law and concludes: “and whatever other commandment there is, is summed up in this word, namely, ‘You must love your neighbor [ple·siʹon] as yourself.’ Love does not work evil to one’s neighbor [ple·siʹon]; therefore love is the law’s fulfillment.” (Ro 13:8-10; compare Ga 5:14.) James calls the command to love one’s neighbor as oneself “the kingly law.”​—Jas 2:8.

Second-greatest commandment. To a Jew who asked, “What good must I do in order to get everlasting life?” and who wanted to know which commandments to follow, Jesus named five of the Ten Commandments and added the injunction at Leviticus 19:18 when he said: “You must love your neighbor [ple·siʹon] as yourself.” (Mt 19:16-19) He also classified this injunction as the second most important in the Law​—one of the two on which all the Law and the Prophets hung.​—Mt 22:35-40; Mr 12:28-31; Lu 10:25-28.

Who is my neighbor? Jesus also deepened the appreciation of his hearers as to the meaning of the word ple·siʹon when another man, anxious to prove himself righteous, asked: “Who really is my neighbor [ple·siʹon]?” In Jesus’ illustration of the merciful Samaritan he made it emphatic that even though one is living at a distance, or is not a relative or an associate, the real neighbor is the one who will exercise the love and kindness to another that the Scriptures command.​—Lu 10:29-37.

Counsel From Proverbs. While a person is to help his neighbor and to love him, yet he must exercise caution not to make attempts to become the most intimate associate of his neighbor or fellowman​—to avoid imposing or presuming upon him. The proverb couches the thought in these terms: “Make your foot rare at the house of your fellowman [form of reʹaʽ], that he may not have his sufficiency of you and certainly hate you.”​—Pr 25:17.

However, faith and trust in a companion, and the advisability of calling on such a person in time of need are counseled in the Proverbs: “Do not leave your own companion or the companion of your father, and do not enter the house of your own brother on the day of your disaster. Better is a neighbor [sha·khenʹ] that is near than a brother that is far away.” (Pr 27:10) Here the writer seems to be saying that a close family friend is one to be valued and should be looked to for help rather than even so close a relative as a brother, if that brother is far away, because he may not be as ready or at least not in as favorable a position to render help as the family companion.