I am reminded today of the backstory to the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Second Temple Jews interpreted the Law about loving your neighbor as yourself to mean they should love their Hebrew neighbors as themselves. They didn’t extend the law of loving their neighbors to the Gentiles because of Leviticus 19:8:
“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.”
They read the qualifying language in that verse – among your people – as a limit to the requirement to love your neighbor as yourself. Just 16 verse slater (in Leviticus 19:33-34), the principle of loving your neighbor is expanded:
“The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”
Foreigners are not expressly called neighbors in verse 34, but Israelites were commanded to “love them as yourself” all the same.
It’s easy to see how Jews arrived at their conclusions. Leviticus 19:8 is the first expression of the rule, so they might have assumed it should be given precedence. Foreigners were not called neighbors in verse 34, so there is a distinction to be made. This is how we use Bible verses as proof texts and sneak in our outside assumptions and biases to guide us to an interpretation that makes sense to us – but is wholly inconsistent with the meaning God intended.
How do we know how God intended it? Jesus
When the expert in the law asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus turned the table on him and asked, what does the law say. Love God and love your neighbor was the answer, but the expert pressed Jesus to ask, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus responded with the Parable of the Good Samaritan that provides us an expanded interpretation of who is my neighbor. (Luke 10:25-37) In case we might still question that interpretation, Jesus removes all doubt in Matthew 5:43-44:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies….”
We need to do careful biblical exegesis with integrity to avoid proof texting and sneaking in assumptions that are motivated by our natural biases. We need to let Scripture, itself, provide interpretive guidance; we need to let the words of Jesus (the Word made flesh) be an interpretative filter; and we need to let the Spirit guide us. “The letter of the Law kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
People are naturally provincial and tribal. We are naturally inclined and biased in that way. Paul calls our natural inclinations “the flesh,” and he warns us to guard against them. We might call the flesh our “insider logic,” and the Bible cuts against that insider logic at every turn.
Our natural inclinations are to take care of ourselves and our kind first. Our natural inclinations are to view others with suspicion and distrust. Our natural inclinations are to seize and hold onto what I can get for myself and leave others to fend for themselves. Our natural inclinations encourage us to adopt a zero sum gained attitude.
When Jesus tells us to take up our crosses and follow him, he is telling us to let go of our insider logic driven by our naturally biased assumptions. When he says the last shall be first, and the first shall be last, and the greatest among you shall be servants of all, he is cutting against our natural inclinations that inform our insider logic.
When Paul said, “[C]onsider your calling, brothers and sisters, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble,” he was cutting against our how we naturally see ourselves that feeds our insider logic. (1 Cor. 1:26) When Paul said, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus,” he is saying there are no insiders in the kingdom of God. (Gal. 3:8)
Our insider logic makes sense if we begin with our natural inclinations, but the Bible which is God’s revealed word and Jesus, the Word in the flesh, cut against the grain of our insider logic. When we seek first the kingdom of God, we check our privileges and other allegiances at the door.
As I reflect on these things, I don’t see a necessary conflict between our natural inclinations and the “law of love,” as Paul puts it. There is a tension, to be sure, especially if we resist the direction God desires to take us. But, the conflict isn’t in the law of love; it is in our desire to live according to our natural inclinations.
There is wisdom in the notion that a person cannot love others who does not love herself. We must learn to love and care for ourselves to be able to extend that love to others. We must love our families, first, before we can extend that love to neighbors, and we must love the neighbors who are like us before we can learn to love our neighbors who are not.
God models the principle of outward extending love in the trinity. God is love (1 John 4:7), and God models loves in His triune character – the community of three persons in one. From the community of the trinity to the creation of the heavens and the earth and all that is in the earth, to the creation of mankind, God models the outward extending nature of love. When God became man, he modeled the outward extending nature of love in dying for all of us while we were still enemies. (Romans 5:10)(ESV)
Love naturally extends out from itself. The absence of love is turning inward. Love must necessarily start with one’s self, but love is not fully realized outside of the community of others. Love extended to completion and perfection is expressed in loving our neighbors, including foreigners and even enemies.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.“
The perfection Jesus speaks about is the perfection of love. Love is a progression from loving yourself, to loving your family and your tribe, to loving your neighbors, to loving strangers and foreigners, and finally to loving even your own enemies. Love does not ultimately limit itself in any way.
Our natural inclinations are to limit the boundaries of love. Wherever we limit the boundaries of our love, we have failed to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. The Bible cuts against the insider logic of our flesh at every turn, encouraging us to expand our perspective, to expand our hearts, to view the world as God sees it, and to love the world as God loves the world, which he demonstrated in giving his only begotten son so that whoever believes in him may be saved.
Navigating by Faith 