WEEKLY SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON

An international Sunday school lesson commentary

For Sunday October 18, 2020

 

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LOVE FOR OUR NEIGHBORS

(showing holiness in our personal conduct)

(Leviticus 19:18, 33-34 and Luke 10:25-37)

 

   In Leviticus 19:18 the LORD GOD introduces HIS people to a new and different concept that would forever contrast their “personal conduct” with that of the world. Here GOD tells HIS present and future followers, through Moses, to “Never seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone, but love your neighbor as yourself. I AM the LORD” (NLT).

    As Christians, our responsibility is NOT to hate, hold a grudge, or seek revenge against one another. It is GOD’s responsibility to exact (krino) judgment, not ours. Our responsibility, as GOD’s greatest creation, is to “love one another”, because “we are all people under the mercy and judgment of GOD”, and “we are all made in HIS spiritual image”. Therefore, in essence, when we hate another human being, we are showing that same kind of hatred toward GOD HIMSELF, WHO made us to be like HIM (holy).

    In addition, in Leviticus 19:33-34, GOD speaks again through Moses saying: “Do not exploit the foreigners who live in your land. They should be treated like everyone else, and you must love them as you love yourself. Remember that you were once foreigners in the land of Egypt” (NLT).

    People who are “racially different” from us, do not have to be necessarily opposed to GOD. They are still human beings who are also made in the “spiritual image” of GOD, and therefore, are born with “GOD’s Nature” (Life, personality, truth, love, justice, wisdom, holiness) embodied in them. 

    Our job as Christians is to help all mankind to reconnect with those “communicable attributes” (GOD’s Nature) that already exists deep inside every one of us, regardless of race, creed, or nationality. We (Christians) were all, once “lost” in this world (symbolically “Egypt”) and had to be offered “the gift of salvation”, through “JESUS’ vicarious sacrifice on the cross”, to be “freed” from the bondage of sin.

   In Luke 10:25-29, one of the teachers of religious law, probably a Pharisee, stood up and posed this question to JESUS: “What must I do to receive eternal life”. Ironically, JESUS gave the same answer that HE had given to the religious teacher who had asked “Which is the most important commandment?” in both Matthew (Matthew 22:34-40) and Mark’s Gospels (Mark 12:28-34).

    There (in Matthew and Mark) JESUS began by reciting the opening line, of the first part of the three-part “Shema”, which states: “Hear O Israel; the LORD is our GOD, the LORD alone”. Then JESUS says that we must “love the LORD THY GOD with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength” (JESUS adds the word “mind” to this list, and I’ll explain why in a minute).

    This kind of love calls for a thorough commitment to GOD that is both “personal”, and, “whole of heart”. In fact, it speaks to “the whole of the make-up of the human being”, which is as follows:

 

·         “The heart”, which is the center of human life,

·         “The soul”, which is the “self-conscience” life of all men,

·         “The mind”, which is the entire thought process of man,

·         “The strength”, which is the entire physical power of man.

 

    In other words, we should “love GOD with every fiber of our being”, and it is no accident that this is also what is covered in the first four commandments (see Exodus 20:3-11), where GOD tells us, in effect, that our love for HIM must be;

 

·         Totally loyal (verse 3),

·         Totally faithful (verse 6),

·         Totally trusting (verse 7),

·         And we must always show total reverence for HIM (verse 8).

 

Next, JESUS states that we should “love our neighbor as we love ourselves”. This calls for a commitment of “the mind”. As only JESUS can, HE quite literally adds this command to the Shema and brings into focus, the fourth part of “the fiber of the human being”. It is not a coincidence that HIS commandment also represents the summation of the remaining six commandments of GOD that are found in Exodus 20, verses 12-17:

 

·         If we love each other, we can certainly begin with honoring our own parents.

·         If we love each other, we are not likely to take “another’s life” intentionally, or maliciously, a life “made in the image of GOD”.

·         If we love each other, we will not commit adultery against our spouse with another person.

·         If we love each other, we won’t steal from each other.

·         If we love each other, we won’t lie on each other, or falsely accuse each other.

·         And finally, if we love each other, we won’t jealously desire anything that belongs to someone else.

 

    And so, here in this passage JESUS is saying, that, “everything GOD commands us to do is of the utmost importance to HIM”, and that, “the Ten Commandments can really be viewed as being only two”. And both of them, or, all ten of them, are of equal importance to GOD. 

    JESUS concludes by saying, “If we do them, we will live”. Here HE means that, “we will live eternally with GOD in Heaven”. And over in Deuteronomy 6, verse 2b, Moses tells the people of Israel the same thing about this life right now, “If you obey all HIS laws and commands, you will enjoy a long life” here on earth. Amen.

    In verse 29, the religious teacher sought to justify himself by posing yet another question to JESUS, asking HIM, “Who is my neighbor?” And in verses 30-37, JESUS gives him, and future generations (us), a clear example of how we can serve GOD by serving our neighbor, as HE relates the, now famous, story of “the good Samaritan”. Here JESUS defines “neighbor” in a very rigorous, all-inclusive way, as being “anybody who is in need”, regardless of race, creed, color, or national origin.

    JESUS’ answer to the religious teacher’s second question has to be viewed on two different levels if we are to grasp the totality of HIS message. First of all JESUS HIMSELF tells us that when HE returns to judge the peoples’ of the world, HE will base HIS decision on how each individual “reacted to human need” over the span of his or her lifetime (Matthew 25:31-46).

    Secondly, it must be viewed in the context of HIS OWN rejection by Israel here on earth. Likewise, in this parable, the Jewish religious leaders rejected the man who had fell victim to bandits along the perilous Jericho road, and needed their help after being robbed. When JESUS lived here on earth, the Jewish people, particularly the religious leaders, became the worst of HIS rejecters by announcing HIM as being “not from GOD”.

    In the parable of the good Samaritan, only the despised, mixed-race Samaritan stopped to render aid to the fallen man of Jewish descent, and out of the three who came upon the man’s injured body (two of them were men of the Church), only the outcast Samaritan was willing to stop and help keep the man from perishing by the wayside.

    In fact, not only did the man render aid to fallen Jewish man by soothing his wounds with medicine and bandages, he also loaded him up on his donkey and took him to a place of shelter in a nearby inn, where he administered further medical assistance to him.

    And furthermore, the next day, the Samaritan gave the innkeeper two pieces of silver and instructed him to take care of the man, and also told HIM, that, if he needed more money, he would square up with him the next time he passed through.

    After JESUS finished relating this parable, HE asked the religious teacher which of the three men who encountered the wounded victim on the Jericho road acted as a good neighbor to him. The religious teacher wisely replied in the only way that he could, by answering, “The one who showed him mercy”. Then JESUS replied to the teacher, “Yes, now go and do the same”. 

 

A Sunday school lesson by,

Larry D. Alexander

 

 

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