{"id":5761,"date":"2014-09-02T00:06:41","date_gmt":"2014-09-02T07:06:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=5761"},"modified":"2014-09-02T00:06:41","modified_gmt":"2014-09-02T07:06:41","slug":"love-your-neighbor-as-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/09\/02\/love-your-neighbor-as-yourself\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Your Neighbor as Yourself"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cDo not steal.
\n\u201cDo not deceive or cheat one another.
\n\u201cDo not bring shame on the name of your God by using it to swear falsely. I am the LORD.
\n\u201cDo not defraud or rob your neighbor.
\n\u201cDo not make your hired workers wait until the next day to receive their pay.
\n\u201cDo not insult the deaf or cause the blind to stumble. You must fear your God; I am the LORD.
\n\u201cDo not twist justice in legal matters by favoring the poor or being partial to the rich and powerful. Always judge people fairly.
\n\u201cDo not spread slanderous gossip among your people.
\n\u201cDo not stand idly by when your neighbor\u2019s life is threatened. I am the LORD.
\n\u201cDo not nurse hatred in your heart for any of your relatives. Confront people directly so you will not be held guilty for their sin.
\n\u201cDo not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.
\n\u201cYou must obey all my decrees.
\n\u201cDo not mate two different kinds of animals. Do not plant your field with two different kinds of seed. Do not wear clothing woven from two different kinds of thread. (Leviticus 19:11-19)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is more to righteousness than simply behaving well toward others. Outward actions, for good or ill, have their origins in what people are thinking, what their desires might be, how they are feeling at any given moment. Bad decisions can grow from exhaustion, headache, or stress. Hate festers a long time before it results in outward violence. Evil is sometimes not an action, but the failure to act. The mixing of things that shouldn\u2019t be mixed symbolizes the importance of not mixing evil with good, or hatred with love. Some things should not be compromised.<\/p>\n

It was common in Hebrew writing to have a summary statement followed by explanations or expansions upon that summary statement. And so the summary statement in this passage\u2014of \u201cdo not steal\u201d\u2014is followed by explanations of what might constitute stealing: \u201cdefrauding your neighbor,\u201d making hired day workers wait for their pay, gossip\u2014which robs people of their reputations\u2014and stealing the life of your neighbor through inaction when you could have saved it.<\/p>\n

The context of the phrase upon which all the law hangs\u2014to love your neighbor as yourself\u2014was when you were least likely to feel affection for your neighbor: when he has wronged you and you want justice. God makes it clear that loving your neighbor is not always easy.<\/p>\n

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\u201cDo not steal. \u201cDo not deceive or cheat one another. \u201cDo not bring shame on the name of your God by using it to swear falsely. I am the LORD. \u201cDo not defraud or rob your neighbor. \u201cDo not make … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5761"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5761"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5763,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5761\/revisions\/5763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}