by Don Hooton
Love is not a New Testament discovery although we sometimes regard it to be. At its very core, the gospel is that God so loved the world. Yet, it is in the Old Testament that we learn of the two “great” love commandments to which Jesus refers in Mark 12, “The Lord our God, the Lord is one: And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” The command to “Love your neighbor as yourself,” which is the basis of the so-called “Golden Rule” of Jesus, is “The Law and the Prophets” according to Jesus (Mat 7:12), not the gospel.
The foundation of any society is based in how the members of that society treat each other. And the society God was building in Israel had love as its foundation: love for God Himself and love for neighbor. In quoting Leviticus 19:18, Paul wrote that “love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13:10). The Law is good because it teaches what is good. And love is good – and the source of any society’s success. And for the church as its own society within human societies, love must be the norm.
Loving our neighbor is more than being nice. Even in the context of Leviticus 19, God showed the this neighborly love manifests itself in ways we often don’t recognize as love (“reprove”) and prohibit things in which we often feel justified (“gossip”). In fact, love is not passive at all. We can’t excuse ourselves just simply by being nice when we disengage from people around us; It demands just the opposite. John said it: “Let us love in deed and truth” (1John 3:18). If you love your neighbor you will, “Reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself” (19:17). These two commands—both to love and to reprove your neighbor—seem unlikely together; but in the proverb, “Better is open rebuke than hidden love” (Prov. 27:5), they explain each other.
Furthermore, loving our neighbor restricts us. When God said to them, “You shall not take vengeance” Paul reasoned that “Vengeance belongs to God” (Rom. 12:19). It is true that we can hold back God’s work of vengeance upon others by seeking it ourselves. However, the point God made to Israel is that what makes one refrain from vengeance is not because it trespasses on God’s territory, but because we love our neighbor. Personal vengeance is prohibited because God has called His people to love.
Yet there is more. Not only must loving our neighbor prevent us from seeking revenge, it must keep us from “bearing a grudge.” Grudges are easy to cherish, especially when we believe it is deserved. And while it is true grudge holding does more harm to the holder than the object, the reason it is prohibited is because it is not love. Look at all the things that love prohibits (19:9-18):
When you reap the harvest of your land… Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not deceive one another. Do not defraud or rob your neighbor. Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight. Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind. Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality… but judge your neighbor fairly. Do not go about spreading slander among your people. Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life. Do not hate. 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.
So, the heart of the Law and the Prophets, Jesus said, is how we treat each other. There is nothing new about this. Quit using your righteousness as a cover for grudge bearing, revenge, slander, hating, partiality or perverting justice. Quit using self-needs as cover for your defrauding the poor, the foreigner, the deaf or the blind. Learn what this means: Love your neighbor as yourself. It’s not merely a warm hallmark-ish sentiment to moisten your eyes; it is the demand of being made in the image of God.
Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law…. any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law… Let us walk properly as in the Lord… not in quarreling and jealousy (Romans 13:8-10).