What is desired in a man is steadfast love, and a poor man is better than a liar.
Proverbs 19:22
It has always seemed strange to me that one of the two “greatest commandments” is buried in Leviticus 19, a chapter that seems to bring together a hodge-podge of random and unrelated laws ranging from don’t gossip, don’t hate, don’t take revenge, don’t bear a grudge to laws of social justice, such as leave parts of the harvest for the poor; don’t pervert justice; don’t withhold wages; don’t use false weights and measures. And while you are it, don’t crossbreed livestock; don’t plant a field with mixed seeds; don’t wear a garment of mixed wool and linen; don’t eat fruit of the first three years; don’t eat blood; don’t practice divination; don’t cut yourself. The whole book seems devoted to blood, guts, fire, and prohibitions against very tasty seafood.
I admit it, Leviticus is a challenge for me. It even threatens my habit of reading through the Bible every year. I start the new year in Genesis, a book with fantastic stories and interesting characters. So far, so good. Then comes Exodus. It’s exciting at first. God delivers his people from Egyptian slavery. Then things get messy, but I keep reading. After Exodus comes Leviticus, the graveyard of Bible reading plans. Well intentioned readers have walked into Leviticus never to be seen again, lost somewhere between burning bulls, tossing blood, and fat covered entrails. Leviticus is usually the last book Christians read. It is, however, traditionally the first book Jewish children learn in the Rabbinic system of education.[1] And I think they have the better of it.
The book itself focuses on the newly consecrated priests Aaron and his sons and is basically a manual of priestly regulations and procedures. The reason the Israelite priests were given such detailed instructions about the care of God’s sanctuary was to ensure his continuing presence with his people.[2]
The English name Leviticus comes from the Latin Leviticus. The Jews used the opening word of the book, Vayikra’, ‘he called’, as the title of this book.[3] Jewish rabbis explain that “He called” is a term of endearment. Many of God’s messages in the Torah are prefaced by the words, “he said,” “He spoke,” or “He commanded,” but Vayikra, “He called,” is the language of invitation, friendship, and love. “In love God called Abraham to follow him. In love God led the way for the wandering Israelites in a pillar of cloud by day, fire by night. In love God calls the people Israel to come close to Him, to be regular visitors at His house, to share His quality of holiness, difference, apartness: to become, as it were, mediators of His presence to the world.” [4]
While Leviticus seems about as far removed from our world as a book could possibly be, it is a key text, if not the key text, to Judaism, and consequently, Christianity. Leviticus was central to the education of Jesus, as well as the Apostle Paul and all the other Jewish followers of Jesus.
The command of God to love your neighbor, your enemy, and the stranger is far more than demanding than “the Golden Rule.” In Matthew 7:12, Jesus says, “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” The idea of “The Golden Rule” is not unique to Judaism or Christianity. Similar examples of this rule are found in Hinduism, “This is the sum of duty: do not do to others what would cause pain for you” (Mahababharata 5.1517); Confucianism, “Do not do to others what you would not have them do for you” (Analects of Confucius 15:23); Buddhist writings, “Hurt not others in ways you yourself would find hurtful” (Udana-Varga 5.18); and in ancient Greek philosophy, “May I do to others as I would they should do unto me” (Plato, Laws II).[5] The concept appears as well in Islam, Taoism, Zoroastrianism, and most of the world’s major religions.[6]
Notice, however, that the Golden Rule, as stated by Jesus, is not actually a direct quotation of the commandment recorded in Leviticus 19:18, 33-34. He will do that later. The Golden Rule, as generally communicated, is not about love, but rather about justice and ethics, or perhaps what evolutionary psychologists call reciprocal altruism. But notice, the Leviticus passages do not tell us, “Be nice to your neighbor, because you would want him to be nice to you.” It says, “Love your neighbor.” That is something different and far stronger. It is this stronger and different sense that Jesus captures when he is asked, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:34–40). Notice how Jesus takes us beyond a universal call to be nice to people to a specific call to go beyond kindness and to love your neighbor as yourself.
In Luke 6:27-36, Jesus so intermingles acts of justice and mercy with the command to love that one can hardly distinguish one from the other. “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” Personally, I think Jesus places these acts of obedience and the heart of love side-by-side because sometimes I must do acts of kindness to plant seeds of love in my own heart. Other times, I may feel love for a person and yet fail to express that love with acts of justice and mercy. Most of the time, though, my heart is hard and loveless, filled with judgement and prejudice against those not like me. It is here that I must learn again the power of doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with my God (Micah 6:8). Doing justice, being kind, and showing mercy hammer away at my heart of stone, cracking it open that love for my neighbor and love for my enemy may find lodging in a heart once at enmity with God and others. It is the act of obedience that becomes the organ of spiritual knowledge. I learn to love when I learn to be kind and merciful. And it is this love of the other, both neighbor and enemy, that helps insure the continual presence of God in my life. Leviticus is starting to make sense to me.
Now, back to Leviticus 19. This chapter contains two of the most powerful of all God’s commandments: to love your neighbor and to love the stranger. The first is in Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord” (Lev 19:18). The second is in Leviticus 19:33-34, when the command to love your neighbor as yourself is taken to an unheard-of height when God commands that we also love the stranger, the alien, the one who is not like us. “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” It is this love that sanctifies and makes holy, that sets apart humans as the temple of God. It is love that opens your eyes to see God in his image-bearers, as broken and as hostile as they may be.
Most people in most societies in most ages have feared, hated, and often harmed the stranger, the alien, the one who is different. People don’t usually love strangers. Yet, this is exactly what God commands us to do. The command to love – not just God – but humanity, all of humanity, including strangers and enemies, is an extraordinary commandment and a world-changing idea. It is this love for neighbor and love for enemy that makes us “holy to the Lord,” and this helps insure the continually abiding presence of God among his people.[7] As our rabbi Jesus told us, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).
You can excel in casting vision, managing details, and motivating the masses, but if you are not loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and loving your neighbor as yourself, you are failing as the leader God has called you to be. For you are called to lead not only to motivate people, make a profit, and increase the influence of your organization, you are called to be holy, to increase the presence of God in the world through love of neighbor, love of enemy, and love of the stranger. You are called to participate in the priestly ministry of democratizing holiness, moving holiness from the sanctuary to society, from your private world to your neighborhood, and from a love of humanity to love for the human near you, even when that human hates you or you feel threatened by them because they are different than you.
[1] Sacks, Jonathan. Leviticus: The Book of Holiness. New Milford, CT: Maggid Books & The Orthodox Union, 2015. 3.
[2] R. K. Harrison, Leviticus: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 3, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1980), 26.
[3] R. K. Harrison, Leviticus: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 3, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1980), 13.
[4] Sacks, Jonathan. Leviticus: The Book of Holiness. New Milford, CT: Maggid Books & The Orthodox Union, 2015. 5.
[5] Michael Westmoreland-White, “Golden,” in Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics, ed. Joel B. Green et al. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2011), 331–332.
[6] Raymond F. Collins, “Golden Rule,” in The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, ed. David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 1070.
[7] Sacks, Jonathan. Leviticus: The Book of Holiness. New Milford, CT: Maggid Books & The Orthodox Union, 2015.
Debbie and I serve as the FMI Global Associate Director for MENACA and Europe. We focus on cultivating disciples, leaders, and church planting movements.
