November 6th

Love Your Neighbor

            Do not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart.  Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in their guilt.  Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people but love your neighbor as yourself.  I am the Lord.

Leviticus 19:17-18

            There are two things that this passage calls us to do and three things that it calls us not to do.

·         Do rebuke your neighbor if they are wrong

·         Do love your neighbor as yourself

·         Do not hate

·         Do not seek revenge

·         Do not hold a grudge

Does this mean that we have to agree with everything they say and do or support every decision that they make?  Nope.  We are to rebuke them so as not to be found guilty in our silence.  But we do not rebuke out of hatred.  We do not rebuke out of revenge.  We do not rebuke because they have hurt us before and we hold a grudge.  When we act towards someone it is to be done out of love, just as we love ourselves.

            There are two groups of people who treat others badly.  The first group is filled with people who love themselves and hate others.  Do you extend mercy to yourself and find all the extenuating circumstances why you were not at fault but then are quick to call down condemnation on others?  This passage is for you.  The call is to seek the interest of others just as passionately as you seek your own self-interest.  Stop holding grudges.  Stop thirsting for revenge.  Release your anger and extend mercy and compassion to others.

            Especially let this be true within your own house.  Be quick to forgive your spouse.  Be quick to forgive your children.  Be quick to forgive your parents and siblings.  Bitterness will fester and hurt those who are closest to us.  The best way to love our kids well is to be free of grudges and bitterness.

            There is another group of people who treat others badly.  They are the ones who are doing exactly what the passage says.  They are loving others just as they love themselves, except they hate themselves.  They are disappointed in their lives and disgusted by their choices and self-deprecating in their speech and abuse themselves in all sorts of ways so that they can escape being with themselves.  They treat others with the same harshness as they treat themselves and tend to have scathing words and attitudes of contempt when interacting with others.

            If this is you, the words of the passage resonate for you as well.  Let go of grudges.  Let go of bitterness.  Whatever happened in the past does not need to drive you throughout the rest of your life.  You have been made in God’s image, crafted and formed by the maker of the Universe.  Your child has not been cursed because of you.  No matter the stories that you tell yourself about you, God calls you beloved…He calls you remarkable…He calls you precious and longs to draw you near to His heart.

            We are modeling how to interact with the world for our children.  If we call others idiots, our kids will too.  If we call ourselves failures, our children will apply that label to themselves as well.  If we pursue revenge and label a person or a group of people as worthy to be hated, our children will follow in our footsteps.

            Do not hate.  Do not seek revenge.  Do not hold a grudge.  Do rebuke your neighbor if they are wrong.

Love your neighbor as you love yourself.

A moment to reflect:

How do you love yourself?  How can you love others as well?