Leviticus 19

Love your neighbor as yourself. Who is our neighbor? The Jews (Israelites) of Jesus’ day considered a “neighbor” to be a fellow Jew. But God did not intend the Israelites (or Christians) to love only each other. In verse 34, God includes aliens in the definition of “neighbor.” And Jesus went even further to include the Samaritans as “neighbors”—people whom the Jews despised (Luke 10:25–37). Jesus taught that our neighbor is anyone whom we can serve, who has needs that we can meet.

How must we love our neighbor? As we love ourselves. What we would want for ourselves, we should want for our neighbor (see Matthew 7:12). This command does not tell us to love ourselves and our neighbor equally; it says: “Love your neighbor as if he were yourself.” By nature, we love ourselves first of all; well, that is how we must love our neighbor. We must put our neighbor above ourselves.

Some people interpret the words as yourself to mean that it’s all right to love oneself; but that wasn’t Jesus’ meaning. Jesus said that we should deny ourselves (Mark 8:34); He called us to give all of our love to God and neighbor.⁶⁵ It is only as we love ourselves less and less that God’s love is able to fill us more and more. Indeed, self love is at the core of our sinful nature. To the extent self love remains in us, to that extent we shall be unable to love as Jesus loved, who laid down His life for us—even when we were strangers and enemies—that we might live (John 13:34; 15:12–13; 1 John 3:16).

19 The reasons behind the laws in this verse are uncertain. Similar laws are also given in Deuteronomy 22:9–11.

The first law, which forbids the “mating” of different animals, cannot mean sexual mating. For one thing, the Israelites mated horses and donkeys to get mules, which are mentioned frequently in the Old Testament. For another, the parallel verse in Deuteronomy 22:10 speaks of pairing different animals under the same yoke, which might put one animal at a disadvantage.

The second part of the verse forbids planting the same field with two kinds of seed. One possible reason for this is that the two crops might ripen at different times and thus make harvesting difficult.

The third part of the verse forbids weaving two materials into the same garment; doing this might cause unequal shrinkage or an uneven uptake of certain dyes.

It is also possible that God, as a general rule, desires to keep the various classes of His creation distinct; the different classes had been created according to their kinds (Genesis 1:12,21,24). On the other hand, some crossbreeding that has taken place in recent years has been beneficial to mankind; it is hard to understand why God would be against this.

20–22 These verses deal with a man having sexual relations with a slave girl engaged to be married to someone else. If the girl had not been a slave, the punishment for both partners would be death, since intercourse with a free woman engaged to another was considered adultery (Leviticus 20:10). In this case, the girl was no longer marriageable to the original man, so he required restitution for his loss (of a wife); this payment would then be due punishment for the man who committed the sin (verse 20).

However, the sin was also against God (as all sins are), and so a guilt offering had to be offered by the sinner (see Leviticus 6:1–7). In this way, then, both the sin against God and the sin against the other man would be “paid for,” and atonement for the sinner would be complete.

23–25 The law recorded here is related to the law of Firstfruits (Exodus 23:19; Deuteronomy 26:1–11), and has to do specifically with fruit trees. When a newly planted fruit tree began to bear fruit, the owner was to wait three more years, during which time none of the fruit was to be eaten. In the fourth year (after the tree had begun bearing fruit) the whole crop was to be offered to the Lord as Firstfruits. Presumably in that year the crop would have become large enough to offer to the Lord. Then, from the fifth year onward, the fruit could be eaten by the owner.

26–31 The laws recorded in these verses were meant to keep the Israelites from engaging in the rites and practices of the Canaanites, such as: eating blood (see Leviticus 17:10–12 and comment), divination and sorcery ⁶⁶ (verses 26,31), cutting one’s hair or body in certain ways⁶⁷ (verses 2728), and causing one’s daughter to become a temple prostitute (verse 29). All of these practices degraded or defiled the human body, which God had created and within which He desired to dwell (1 Corinthians 3:16).

In Deuteronomy 18:9–13, additional prohibitions are given against various kinds of divination and sorcery, as well as a repeated prohibition against sacrificing one’s children (Leviticus 18:21).

32 One of the first signs of disintegration in a society is seen when younger people lose respect for the elderly. This can take many forms: rebellion against parents and other authorities, an arrogant contempt for the wisdom of older people, and a callous disregard for the special needs of the very old. . . . revere your God. People who do not revere God will not revere anyone else.

33–34 Aliens (foreigners) who lived among the Israelites were encouraged to integrate as much as possible with the host community. As we have seen else where,God is always concerned to protect the rights of minorities and all other groups in society that are vulnerable and disadvantaged. And this would certainly include unborn children!

In verse 34, God tells the Israelites that they must love the aliens just as much as they love each other—indeed, as much as they love themselves (see verse 19 and comment). And He gives a reason for them to do so: they themselves were once aliens in Egypt (Exodus 22:21; 23:9). God uses every hardship we go through to make us more sensitive to other people’s suffering and better able to comfort them (2 Corinthians 1:3–7).

The nation of Israel has often been criticized for being exclusive and hostile to outsiders living within its borders. But that was never God’s intention. The Israelites were commanded to reach out in love to the foreigner and to the less fortunate in their midst. Our modern democratic societies have been modeled on the principles found here: equality under the law and respect for the rights of every individual.

35–37 Holiness and righteousness apply to every aspect of society, even to scales and weights. There can be no justice and fairness when the standards of measurement are wrong. God expected His people to be holy in every area of their lives—moral, ceremonial, political, social and economic—right down to their weights and measures (see Deuteronomy 25:13–16). How easy it would be to cheat a poor man with a dishonest weight!⁶⁸

The central theme of Leviticus is holiness. Here in this chapter, we have learned that the truest and deepest manifestation of holiness is showing love to others. There is no fund a mental difference between the ethics of the Old Testament and those of the New: both are summed up by these words: Love your neighbor as yourself.