Leviticus - Part 7: Love Your Neighbor
Leviticus - Part 7: Love Your Neighbor
Leviticus 19
Pastor Scott Skones
One of the most frequent complaints or critiques that I hear regarding Christianity is about the hypocrisy of Christians.
Our English word “hypocrite” actually comes from the Greek word that means “stage actor.” And so a hypocrite is one who pretends. One who plays a role, but isn’t the real thing.
And it is true that there are many who claim to be Christians who are just actors. You can probably think of someone – maybe someone from the past. They are just playing a role. There are some who turn on the acting when it’s convenient – when it benefits them. There are others, however, who claim to really believe in Christian or Biblical teaching, but only for other people. They take scripture seriously as it relates to others. There are many versions of this.
The critique that many Christians are hypocrites is hard to refute.
However, I always remind people when I hear this argument that ALL people are hypocrites. To be human is to be hypocritical.
CS Lewis reflected on this, saying that humans are complicated, that our motives are mixed, and that we are usually unsure what our motives actually are. In other words, most aren’t acting diabolically in their hypocrisy. They are simply complicated, confused, and unable to reflect on what is driving a particular action or decision. In other words, all humans are, to some degree, hypocrites.
If you are looking for a reason to be critical of any individual or group of individuals, look close enough and you’ll find a reason.
But I’ve noticed, and perhaps you have too, that there are a couple of things that tend to diffuse these arguments about the hypocrisy of Christians.
The first thing that seems to diffuse the argument is when what we believe actually changes the way that we live our lives. When there seems to be a legitimate attempt to live out Christian teaching and values. When Christians live generously, for example, it’s disarming. In other words, when what you claim to believe actually bears fruit in your life, people take notice.
And the second related thing that diffuses these arguments is when you live a loving life. When the way that you interact with your neighbors is marked by love.
Of course, it is the way of Jesus. All four gospels record Jesus saying “Love your neighbor as yourself” or something similar about the importance of loving others.
Additionally, Galatians, James, and 1 John all tell us that a summary of the Old Testament law is “love your neighbor.”
And so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that when Christians live this out – when Christians are quick to love their neighbor, you hear fewer accusations of hypocrisy.
This command to love your neighbor as yourself is part of our confession of sin each time we take communion. And it works its way into our prayers nearly every Sunday morning. But most of us think of the command to love our neighbor as being a New Testament thing. As originating with the teaching of Jesus.
But did you know that when Jesus said these words he was quoting Leviticus of all places? That’s right. Our text for today contains these words that have become the heartbeat of New Testament teaching.
Last week in our sermon on The Day of Atonement, we turned a page in the content of Leviticus. The first half of Leviticus really focuses on the question of how people can worship God and live in a relationship with him. And the second half of the book focuses more on what that relationship looks like. On what it means to live faithfully before the Lord.
And this order is important. The instructions for how we should live follow and flow out of the good news that our sin has been atoned for.
Now, the Jewish person hearing the words of Leviticus 19 wouldn’t have been able to put these pieces together nearly so nicely. But for us who read these words through the cross of Jesus, we can see that it is the Atonement of Leviticus 16 that produces the desire for the obedience and love that follows.
Our text today is really the entirety of chapter 19 - but for the sake of time I’m going to read a selection: verses 1-18; 32-37
Leviticus 19:1-18; 32-37
The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.
3 “‘Each of you must respect your mother and father, and you must observe my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God.
4 “‘Do not turn to idols or make metal gods for yourselves. I am the Lord your God.
5 “‘When you sacrifice a fellowship offering to the Lord, sacrifice it in such a way that it will be accepted on your behalf. 6 It shall be eaten on the day you sacrifice it or on the next day; anything left over until the third day must be burned up. 7 If any of it is eaten on the third day, it is impure and will not be accepted. 8 Whoever eats it will be held responsible because they have desecrated what is holy to the Lord; they must be cut off from their people.
9 “‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.
11 “‘Do not steal.
“‘Do not lie.
“‘Do not deceive one another.
12 “‘Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.
13 “‘Do not defraud or rob your neighbor.
“‘Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight.
14 “‘Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the Lord.
15 “‘Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.
16 “‘Do not go about spreading slander among your people.
“‘Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life. I am the Lord.
17 “‘Do not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in their guilt.
18 “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.
And then skipping down to verses 32-37:
“‘Stand up in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the Lord.
33 “‘When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. 34 The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
35 “‘Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight or quantity. 36 Use honest scales and honest weights, an honest ephah and an honest hin. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt.
37 “‘Keep all my decrees and all my laws and follow them. I am the Lord.’”
Lord, we ask that you would give us ears to hear and hearts to believe what your word is saying today. Grow within us a deep love for you, for your word, and for our neighbors that you have placed around us. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, there is no doubt the theme of the chapter from the very beginning when we hear God say, “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.”
What follows that command are, if I counted correctly, 44 subsequent commands in this chapter. And while there are a variety of topics, a clear emphasis develops. There is a restatement of many of the 10 commandments. Only worshiping God. Honoring parents. Not misusing God’s name. And others.
But the commands and teachings of chapter 19 reach their high point in verse 18 where it says, “love your neighbor as yourself.”
But one of the gifts of this chapter is that God gets extremely granular and detailed regarding what he means. And so today as we focus on this second greatest commandment according to Jesus, we are going to do two things:
First, we are going to talk about what it MEANS to love our neighbor. And then, second, we are going to explore how we can WANT to love our neighbor.
1 - What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself?
The best way to think about this question is to look at the many different ways that our text lays this out for us. It gives us many examples of loving our neighbor.
The first example that I want to point out is found in verses 9-10. We might express it this way:
Loving your neighbor means living generously.
V. 9-10 - ‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.
This will come up again in Leviticus 23, Deuteronomy 24, and of course, for those of you who are familiar with the story of Ruth, we will see this practice in Ruth chapter 2.
Farmers and vineyard workers were commanded to leave some of the harvest behind to make sure that there was food for the poor. This was a command and an obligation from the Lord.
Think about the logistics of this – God commands his people to be LESS efficient. To take LESS profit. So that the vulnerable around them could be provided for. That’s God’s heart for how his people are to live.
Remember the overarching topic here – this is what it looks like to live a holy life. To be so concerned about providing for the well-being of your neighbors that you take less so that they can have enough.
What is so compelling about this is that we teach our kids this type of behavior, but we tend to have different standards when it comes to business.
If your child was playing outside with neighbor kids and you brought out a plate of cookies for them – and your child grabbed all of the cookies off the plate – every last one – you would all chastise the child and make them share. Even though the cookies belong to your family, it’s just being a good human being to make sure that all the kids get some.
But in America, we don’t typically apply that principle to business. When it comes to business we are fine with selfishness. We would never demand a soft, generous heart. In fact, we usually applaud and reward a fierce businessperson for their acumen and success.
But God says that if you are his follower, you approach life and business differently. And part of that is making sure that the vulnerable around you have what they need.
Or, let me say it this way: our modern understanding of personal rights and freedoms doesn’t negate our obligation before the Lord to live generously.
What else does it mean to love your neighbor?
Loving your neighbor means not taking advantage of people.
We see this in verses 13-15: “Do not defraud or rob your neighbor. Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight. Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind. Do not pervert justice…”
We live in a world where taking advantage of people is far too common. Whatever line of work you’re in. Wherever you go, you will see it. From the TV preachers begging widows to mail in their gifts so that they can afford a private jet to scammers targeting vulnerable people. This is part of how our world works.
But, of course, this is the opposite of loving your neighbor. To love your neighbor doesn’t just mean that we don’t take advantage of others, but that we work against people and systems that DO take advantage of others. The heart of this command is not merely that we stop ourselves from doing this – but that we work to prevent it.
Loving your neighbor means not taking advantage of people.
It’s about to get more personal.
Loving your neighbor means practicing forgiveness.
V. 18 - “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”
And he just stepped on all of our toes, because all of us feel this urge when we are offended or wronged.
But God makes it clear that part of following him – part of loving your neighbor – is letting go of past wrongs. Refusing to hold a grudge. Practicing forgiveness.
The New Testament doubles down on this. Jesus in Matthew 6 says “Forgive and you will be forgiven.”
And so to love your neighbor means that you practice forgiveness – that you refuse to dwell on the past. Living in unforgiveness is incompatible with worshiping and serving and following the Lord. You can’t do both.
There’s one final point that I want to mention today as we consider what it means to love your neighbor. And, to be honest, I’d rather skip this one because it has become so politicized today – but that’s probably all the more reason that I need to mention it.
Loving your neighbor means loving foreigners around you.
33-34 - “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. 34 The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”
Let me begin by saying these are not my words – God said them and so if you disagree with them your beef is with God and not with me.
But can I just be brutally honest for a moment this morning?
The attitude of superiority with which I have heard supposedly Christian people talk about foreigners or immigrants in our own community is disgusting. The tone that certain politicians take when it comes to foreigners among us is horrifying.
I remember in April of last year hearing a presidential candidate say – I’ll let you decide which one said it – and I quote “'No, they're not humans, they're not humans, they're animals….”
That is repugnant and anti-Christian. And it is sin.
And I’ve heard similar comments made by people in this building. And I’ve called it out.
God has a heart for the immigrant and the foreigner. Why? Because they are vulnerable. They need someone to care for them. They are exactly the same as you. They were created in God’s image just like us. Christ died for them.
We must differentiate between the policy and the person. We can advocate for effective border security as a matter of public policy. But you can never allow the temperature of the political yelling match around us to affect how we see the person.
It doesn’t matter how that person ended up here, where they are from, or what language they speak – God loves that person. And Christ died for that person. And God is calling you to love them as yourself.
My guess is that some of you here need to repent today for taking your marching orders from Cable News rather than from God’s word. For allowing your heart for others to be discipled by politicians rather than shaped by holy scripture.
At Living Word, we are people under the word of God. We confess that God’s word is true and that it is the final authority for faith and life.
And so hear God’s word again:
“When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. 34 The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”
Do you believe that God’s word is true? Do you believe that God’s word reigns supreme over political platforms?
Love them as yourself. That is God’s standard. That is God’s command. And If I offended you today – the response is simple. Do business with God. Submit yourself to his word.
Well nobody walked out yet, so how bout we land this plane?
The first question we considered was “What does it mean to love my neighbor.” But the challenge is that, if you’re anything like me, you might not always FEEL like it.
We are selfish. Our sinful nature has a propensity to look out for ourselves first. And so this command runs contrary to our very nature. And so it forces this second question:
2 - How can I desire to love my neighbor?
How can I turn from my selfishness and love my neighbor as God has commanded?
And I think there are a couple of things that we see in our text that are helpful here. One is more generic and one is pretty specific.
First - Allow God’s law to do its work in your heart.
This chapter is full of law. Full of God’s commands. Do this, don’t do this. And that law is really important because it convicts us. It points out our sin. It makes clear our inability to save ourselves.
And this is actually incredibly helpful. You can’t do any of these things on your own. And you can’t love your neighbor on your own strength.
Stare into that mirror for a while. Stare into the mirror and see your selfishness. Your tendency to think that you’re better than others. Look at your stinginess and your judgmentalism and your hypocrisy.
Allow God’s law to bring you to the end of yourself. And then notice what is repeated over and over in the chapter. I counted 14 times in chapter 19 that this phrase shows up.
That phrase is “I am the Lord.” And so we let the Law do its work, convicting us of sin— but we also:
Remember who God is and what he has done.
This is made really clear near the end of the chapter in verse 36: “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt.”
What is God saying when he phrases it that way? I am the God who delivers. I am the God who saves. I am the God who rescues.
And of course, that saving of God’s people from Egypt was a precursor, a shadow, of a greater deliverance that would take place when Jesus would deliver his people from the power of sin and death.
And so as Christians, we get this message of Leviticus 19 loud and clear. 14 times repeating the phrase “I am the Lord.”
We remember who God is and what he has done – and specifically what he has done on the cross. Delivering us out of spiritual slavery.
And so When we don’t love our neighbor. When we hear God’s law preached and there is another deep pocket of infection discovered in the dark recesses of our hearts, what do we do? We remember what Jesus has done and we give it to him. We remember that Jesus carried that sin in the wilderness – removing it from us as far as the East is from the West. We remember that Jesus shed his blood for THAT too.
And then we are free to view these commands of Leviticus 19 as a “get to” not a “have to.”
We are free to live generously because we have everything in Christ.
We are to treat others with respect because while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
We are free to forgive because we have been forgiven so incredibly much.
We are free to love and care for foreigners because we too are just passing through. This isn’t our true home. We are here for a purpose – to join Jesus on his mission of redemption in our community.
We are free to obey because Jesus obeyed perfectly. We are free to love our neighbor because of how deeply we are loved by our heavenly father.
Jesus checked every box. He met every obligation. He loved perfectly…fully…in every way.
Part of the reason that our culture is quick to cry “hypocrite” is because many Christians live their lives pointing out all of the sin in their neighbors' lives while not being honest about their own.
But Jesus frees you from having to be right. He hasn’t called you to be the morality police. He’s set you free to be honest about your own sin, and to love your neighbor in spite of theirs.
May we always be a church that takes our OWN sin very seriously. Confessing it and living in Christ’s forgiveness. And, simultaneously, a church that takes loving our neighbor just as seriously.
This sermon is offered as a resource by Living Word Lutheran Brethren Fellowship in Dickinson, North Dakota. It has been lightly edited for the website, but the original tone remains unchanged, and no grammatical revisions or style adjustments have been made.