Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.
Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am the lord.
~Leviticus 19:17-18
"Thou shalt not hate thine brother in thine heart!" It seems almost self-explanatory! And yet how often is it that we feel one way in our hearts, while outwardly, we act differently. It is best to reconcile the inner and outer man. Let us be certain to have no hate, nor indeed any type of animosity toward our brother in our heart.
"Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him." In love toward our neighbour, we are to 'rebuke our neighbour', tell him of his folly. We are to do this out of love for him, out of fear that he will lose his soul, out of fear that we will lose our brother. We are not to rebuke our neighbour so that we can hurt him by the rebuke, remember, we are to show forth an increase of love after the rebuke, so that we retain our brother, and the bonds of love grow.
"Thou shalt not avenge." There is only one reason to include this line here, and that is because our neighbour has done something against us. The Lord says, "Thou shalt not avenge." There is only one reason to avenge, and that is that our neighbour has caused us a problem, and so the Lord says to not avenge. So, even if our neighbour does something to us, we are not to avenge. I know I am repeating myself, but all too often people try to find some excuse as to why they are justified in seeking some sort of vengeance.
"Nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people." Not even are we to bear any grudge against each other! Not even to have a hard feeling against each other in our heart. Of course, we would never even have an occasion to have a hard feeling if we were not wronged, so this must apply after we have been wronged. I say after, because only evil would exist in a person's heart should they have a grudge when no occasion was given. Even if a person feels entirely justified, we are to have no grudge against the 'children of our people.' And before anyone justifies that term, do a little more reading in Leviticus, because the Lord addresses that as well.
"But thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." How do we love ourselves? Often we are hardest on ourselves, but yet we still give ourselves another chance. In fact, chance after chance after chance. We still love ourselves, we still try to improve ourselves. We still feed, clothe, and care for ourselves; should we not do the same for our brother who has trespassed against us? Yes, of course! How else could we love our neighbour as ourselves?
"I am the Lord." It is a common theme for the Lord to sign His work, to let people know that it is His word. Sometimes the prophets will use the term, 'Thus saith the Lord.' But in each case this means something more! Here the Lord is not only reminding us of His covenant, and not only that He is the giver of that covenant, but also to remind us of His love for us, the recipients of His covenant. He is telling us that He will keep His end of the covenant, that this is the way to be one with Him, that we who keep the covenant will inherit. He will not let us down, but will fulfill all His words!
P.S. Would someone like to apply this to the positive, to the Zion mindset?
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