If you’ll turn with me please, our first scripture reading comes from the book of Leviticus, chapter 19, beginning at verse 11. Moses writes:
‘You shall not steal. You shall not deal falsely. You shall not lie to one another. You shall not swear by my name falsely and so profane the name of your God; I am the Lord. You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning. You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God; I am the Lord. You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness, you shall judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor; I am the Lord. You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.’
From the law, we turn again to Paul’s letter to the Galatians, chapter 6, beginning at the first verse. Paul writes:
‘Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load. Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.’
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let us pray.
Lord, you have given us your law, a law that we no longer fear to be condemned by, but a law instead that we now desire to keep and be obedient to. Help us to love your law, to meditate on it all of our days, and let it guide our steps and our hearts in all that we think, say, and do. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
So earlier in this epistle, Paul wrote about the purpose of our salvation, the why for which Christ died for us, saying, ‘For you are called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: you shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Then he encouraged us to live a life different from the ways of the fallen world, telling us to ‘walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do.’
He encourages us to live in such a way and to do those things which are pleasing to the Lord rather than indulging in our ingrained sinful inclinations. He reminds us that our first priority of desire must be to love God, to serve Him, to worship and glorify Him in all that we do, and that sin will get in our way, keeping us from performing our duty of godly obedience if we allow it.
He reminds us that we have another helper, another paraclete: God the Holy Spirit, who gives us the opportunity and ability to choose the desires of Christ’s Spirit, and that He is the one who helps us overcome the occasions of our own sinfulness because we cannot be righteous on our own. Thus, Paul declares, ‘But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law,’ not as a declaration of antinomianism, but instead stating that if you are in Jesus Christ and you follow in His way, doing the good things which Christians are called to do, are enabled to do, and desire to do, then because you are being led by His Spirit, you are not under the condemnation of the law.
Now, being led by the Spirit, we are desirous to follow God’s holy law and so honor our Father in heaven, and God’s holy law is what Jesus, Paul, and his brother James each described as being fulfilled through the loving of our neighbor.
And so next, Paul warns us against continuing in the works of the flesh, those sinful and immoral acts which are antithetical to the love of neighbor because they are immoral expressions of our love of self. They are selfishness, not selflessness. They are expressions of philosophy, not agape.
‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ That is the law of Christ. That’s God’s holy law. This is the perfect law which the Christian endeavors to obey and is the law under which we do not fear condemnation, because by being obedient to this law, we express our love for the Lord in loving all people made in His sacred image.
So now Paul commands us to ‘bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.’ And he’s not really telling us anything new here. He’s just repeating what Moses had written down at Mount Sinai so long ago and which Jesus confirmed and affirmed several times in the Gospels.
Jesus and Paul here turn a whole list of negative commandments, of negative mitzvah, around, all of those ‘thou shalt not,’ transforming them into a more positive and broad command of instead, ‘Thou shalt do this.’
So what’s the difference between a negative commandment versus a positive? How does Paul, here, like Jesus before him, like during the sermon on the mount, cause us to reconsider and reframe our understanding of God’s eternal law, especially without changing, breaking, or invalidating it?
Leviticus 19, this is the first and primary source for the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself, provides us with a whole laundry list of things which God’s people should not and must not do to be a holy and obedient people. It’s framed kind of as a repetition of the second table of the law, commandments 5 through 10, with the third one thrown in as well. Breaking any of those mitzvot would be considered unloving. Doing any of those forbidden things to someone clearly is not agapeing your neighbor.
Therefore, in not doing those things, that means we must be loving our neighbor and therefore keeping the whole law, right? Not necessarily.
Whenever we’re expected to be obedient to God, or to anyone else with some measure of authority over us—whether it be our parents, our teachers, police officers, the government, etc.—and we’re given a finite and relatively short list of do-nots, do we not usually breathe a sigh of relief? Do we not consider a list of things not to do pretty easy to follow? Unlike a list of tasks, of things that we are asked or are told that we must do.
As a child being left home alone, would you prefer being given a list of things not to do—do not open the door to a stranger, do not answer the phone unless you recognize the number, don’t use the stove, and other sorts of things—or would you prefer to receive a list of chores that are expected to be done before your parents come home?
I certainly preferred those do-nots. As a child, I felt like I was more free with them, but I was wrong. That kind of list sure feels easier to satisfy because we think it’s easier not to do a thing, especially when we’re already inclined not to do it.
But the reason why the Jewish leaders, why they tried to test Jesus when asking Him questions about the commandments, was because they thought they had it all figured out, and because they honestly believed that they were being completely obedient to the Torah because they did not do those things which they were told not to do.
Matthew writes of this in his Gospel, saying, ‘And behold, a man came up to Him saying, ‘Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?’ And he said to him, ‘Why do