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Many of God’s commands are hard to consistently apply to our daily lives. It’s not that we don’t understand them. It’s that it runs so contrary to our normal human way of thinking and desires. Take Matthew 5:43-44 NIV, 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”. This verse rests upon Leviticus 19:18 NIV, 18 “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” Expanded or clarified by our Lord Jesus Christ in John 13:34-35 NIV, 34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

 

Moses tells us we are not to seek revenge nor are we to bear a grudge in Leviticus.  The word revenge in Hebrew means to seek to punish someone for a wrong that was committed against you. Eye for an eye sort of thinking. We want them to hurt as much or more than we have experienced from them. We want the whole world to see we were the injured one. The word grudge means to keep or maintain anger. The offense created a slow burn of distrust and hatred in our hearts that will burn out our relationship with God. The two are mutually exclusive.

 

This command to not seek revenge or bear a grudge is followed by the command to love your neighbor as yourself.  Jesus expanded on this by saying that we are to love our neighbors as Jesus had loved us. Every modern English translation of the Bible does not translate Leviticus 19:18 the way it really reads in the Hebrew. It literally reads: “Thou shalt love to your neighbor.”   Of course it was not translated that way because it is awkward in the English. It should really read, “Do (acts of) love to your neighbor.” It’s not the feelings that matter but the doing.

 

In Luke 10:27 Jesus repeats this, but this time quotes directly from Leviticus by saying, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” There were two questions that were hotly debated. Question 1 was, “Who is my neighbor?” and question two was, “What if I don’t love myself?” The Jews wanted the neighbor to be only those who were Jewish. Jesus corrected this by telling the parable of The Good Samaritan. In other words, everyone is to be considered your neighbor and worthy to see the love of Christ extended to them, even those you consider your enemy or who persecute you.  Jesus even answered the kind of love to have in John 13:34 NIV, “As I have loved you, you must love one another”. The same kind of love I have for you I want you to show to others, even those who persecute or maybe bully you. Hear Jesus say, “I can’t use your revenge or grudge to show others of my love, so let My love be what they see rather than your revenge”. Keep this at the forefront of your mind as you respond to social media posts. Always let the love of Christ be seen through your actions and words.

 

Jesus commanded in Luke 10:27 NIV, “Love your neighbor as yourself”. Are we to love others only as far as we love ourselves, which means if we hate ourselves we are free to hate others? That doesn’t sound right does it? Rabbi Lubavitch put another spin on this by asking the question, “Why should we love only as much as ourselves.” There are many people who do not love themselves or certain aspects of themselves and thus if we take this command literally then we would have chaos as those who do not love themselves would treat their fellow man with the same scorn and hate they have for themselves.  Thus Rabbi Lubavitch renders this command as “Thou shalt love thy neighbor and thyself.” This is why Jesus said to love others and ourselves with the same kind of love He has shown us - Grace and mercy to all, even me.

 

This is so important that Jesus tied the discovery of identifying His true disciples through this kind of love in John 13:35 NIV, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” We are tempted to say, “Well, I know I am supposed to love that person, but…”. Jesus is saying that there should be no buts.

 

This is one of the toughest commands and yet as Jesus said if we are successful in that we will be successful in keeping all the other commands. The second commandment is the biggie, we are to love as He loves and that means our enemies, those who spit on us, whip us, say false things about us, and crucify us. We are to be like Jesus and look at them while suffering the torture they inflict on us and say: “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” There are no buts.

 

Randy Harwood, Pastor, Spokane First Baptist Church