Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Today's reading was written by Amy Boucher Pie, and she titled it, Loving Our Neighbors.

In the days of self-isolation and lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic, words by Martin Luther

King Jr. in his letter from a Birmingham jail rang true. Speaking about injustice, he remarked

how he couldn't sit idly in one city and not be concerned about what happens in another.

We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,

he said, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects us all

indirectly. Likewise, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted our connectedness as around the world cities and countries closed

to stop the spread of the virus. What affected one city could soon affect another. Many centuries

ago, God instructed his people how to show concern for others. Through Moses, he gave the Israelites the

law to guide them and help them live together. In Leviticus 19, he told them to not do

anything that endangers your neighbor's life, and to not seek revenge or bear a grudge against

others, but to love your neighbor as yourself. God knew

that communities would start to unravel if people didn't look out for others, valuing

their lives as much as they did their own. We too can embrace the wisdom of God's

instructions. As we go about our daily activities, we can remember

how interconnected we are with others as we ask him how to love and serve them well.

Now join me as I read from Leviticus chapter 19 verses 15 through 18.

Do not pervert justice. Do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great,

but judge your neighbor fairly. Do not go about spreading slander among your people.

Do not do anything that

endangers your neighbor's life I am the Lord do not hate a fellow Israelite in

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