Of the fifty states in our nation, New Jersey is I think at the top of the list for being the least appreciated. “The armpit of the nation” I have often heard it called; or “merely a bedroom community for New York and Philadelphia.” This is reinforced by the fact that the state of New Jersey has no major TV network of its own. Stations are either New York or Philadelphia. Newark, Camden, Trenton, the New Jersey Turnpike…these are all places we are told to avoid. Having lived in Trenton, seen Newark and Camden, and having many times traveled the New Jersey Turnpike, I understand the distain.
But New Jersey is also called “the Garden State.” And if you were to travel to the heart of New Jersey, you would see that it is not called “the Garden State” for nothing. New Jersey is full of beautiful gardens, woods, rivers, and trails. If you never get out of Newark or off the Turnpike you would never know what you were missing.
Leviticus is the “New Jersey” of the books of the Bible. It is full of rules, rituals, and rites that we don’t understand (and we’re not sure we want to). If you think the New Jersey Turnpike is expensive you should see the price of the sacrifices in Leviticus! Leviticus is reputed to be a long, arduous, and boring read of do’s and don’t’s (and mostly don’t’s) that do not translate well or even apply into our experience.
Yet Leviticus is the book of the Bible where God speaks the most—statistically it is more direct quotes from God than every other book of the Bible. And while the title “Leviticus” is Latin for “of the Priests,” its audience was not focused on the priests but was aimed at everyone in the community. The central focus of the book is on holy living, a theme highlighted five times by the phrase, be holy because I am holy (11:44, 45; 19:2, 20:7, and 20:26). Leviticus deals with the reality of sin, the need for God’s grace and forgiveness and how to live out God’s love and grace with each other.
Chapter 19 opens with God telling Moses to speak to the entire assembly (verse 1). This chapter concerned everyone in Israel. God’s message begins with a preface: Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy (verse 2). The rest of the chapter is an unpacking of what that means in a wide array of circumstances. Take a look at just the first half of the chapter:
Respect your parents (verse 3).
Observe the Sabbath (verse 3).
Don’t make idols (verse 4).
Don’t waste your fellowship offering or negate it by eating it after the proscribed time (verses 5-8).
Don’t be greedy about your harvest, but leave some for the poor (verses 9-10).
Don’t steal, rob, swear falsely, defraud, or hold back wages (verses 11-13).
Don’t mistreat the deaf or the blind (verse 14).
Don’t pervert justice (verse 15).
Don’t slander (verse 16).
Don’t do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life (verse 16).
Don’t hate anyone in your heart but let people know when you have a problem with them (verse 17).
Don’t seek revenge or bear a grudge (verse 18).
Then we come to the thing I want to focus: but love your neighbor as yourself (verse 18), which Jesus quotes as part of the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:36-40). There are three parts to this command:
What we are to do: Love your neighbor. The word love in the original Hebrew means “to have affection for.” We are to have strong feelings that make us “for” and not “against” our neighbor. Love disposes us to honor, protect, and look out for the good of others. Love moves us to be honest and fair and keeps us from taking advantage of each other. Love looks for ways to be kind and merciful. Having, cultivating, and growing in love will dispose us to keep all the previous commands and the ones following as well.
Who we are obligated to love: Love your neighbor. While the context here does not qualify “neighbor” at all (God sees it big and keeps it simple), it seems the Pharisees in Jesus’ day were teaching that neighbor was limited to fellow Israelites and did not apply to one’s enemies (remember, it is our nature to see things small and make things complicated). Jesus disagreed. Hence in Matthew 5:43-44 (NIV) He says,
You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. When Jesus was specifically asked who is my neighbor? in Luke 10:29, He responds with the parable of the Good Samaritan: the foreigner saw and helped the person in need, though he was a stranger and a stranger who would never look to him for help since Jews and Samaritans avoided each other. Neighbor has no small print.
How we are to do it: Love your neighbor as yourself. You are to see your neighbor as an extension of yourself and treat them accordingly. Would you give yourself mercy? Then show mercy. Would you want help? Then give help. Would you want to be treated fairly? Then give fair treatment. God wants us to see our neighbor as being ourselves.
I think to really understand this command it needs to be seen in light of 19:2, Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.
To be holy can mean to be set apart as belonging to God and it can also mean moral perfection, as when Jesus said in Matthew 5:48 (NIV), Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. In our text, being holy means moral perfection—being morally excellent in our relationship with God and one another.
When we are talking about moral excellence we can look at it in two ways, privately and publically, or in how we conduct ourselves and in how we relate to others. For instance if you are righteous then you will be just in your relationships. If you are humble that will come out as meekness. In the same way, holiness is shown in relationship as love.
So when God says be holy because I am holy He means “be love because I am love.” To love your neighbor as yourself is what it means to be holy.
More tomorrow.
Learning To Be Full Of Grace And Truth. 