Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart; thou shalt earnestly rebuke thy neighbour, lest thou bear sin on account of him.
Leviticus 19 applies holiness to ordinary life — home, work, farming, and the way neighbours treat each other. Verse 17 turns that inward. It deals with what a person hides in the heart toward a brother who has done wrong, and with what love must say out loud.
Verse 17 belongs to a section of law with a single aim.
Chapters 19 and 20 bring us to a fresh section of the law. It appeals to Israel to be holy, as the Lord was holy, who had separated them to be a people for Himself. In chapter 19 we see holiness taught and applied to the everyday circumstances of the Israelite. It touches his home life, his worship, his dealings with his neighbours, his farming, and his behaviour toward the stranger.
This law reaches past what a person does to what he thinks.
The law mentions talebearing or slandering, and then hidden hatred. Law does not only forbid bad actions, but also bad thoughts of the heart (vv. 16-17). If one's brother had done evil, this was no reason to hate him. Even the law required him to rebuke the offender — not in a harsh spirit, not condemning him, not bearing any grudge against him. Instead, "you shall love your neighbor as yourself" (v. 18).
Where the ESV says "reason frankly," commentators say "earnestly rebuke." The clause that follows gives the reason for it, and it can be read two ways.
Hatred in the heart is the deep wrong against a brother. But the command follows at once: rebuke your neighbour in earnest, so that you do not bear sin on his account (or, bring sin upon them). In short, no allowance of a grudge, or of taking vengeance for oneself, but to love one's neighbour as oneself.
Verse 16 forbids carrying tales. Verse 17 says what to do instead.
We are to rebuke our neighbour and not allow sin to remain on him. The instruction is plain. If you see wrong or sin in your brother, go straight to him about it. Do not talk against him behind his back.
Saying nothing and absorbing the injury can pass for patience. It leaves the offender exactly where he is.
What comes naturally to us would be to avoid the offending brother. We say nothing to him about his fault, but tell it to others. Or one might decide to bear the injury with patience and "try to live it down," as people say. This might at first seem the right thing to do, and it may look like grace. But it leaves out the most important thing — the spiritual condition of my offending brother. Besides, staying away from the brother may leave a tinge of bad feeling in my own heart. Love does not rest while it knows that the conscience of an erring brother is defiled.
Then what does love look like when evil is present?
To talk of Christian love while we allow evil is to imagine a Christian love that dishonours Christ. Patience and forgiveness toward those who do evil is one thing. Quietly going along with the evil itself is quite another. Where did love show itself in forgiveness so wonderfully as at the cross? And where was God's refusal to tolerate evil so fearfully displayed?
You can give a rebuke in a spirit that ruins it. The test is simple: can you call the person "brother" and mean it?
There is no spirit of love in it. You cannot say "brother" sincerely while you do it. In fact there is pleasure in seeing the fault, a spirit of comparison. No one ought to find fault until he can say "Brother" in that spirit, and because he loves him. "Do you not see?" It may be forgetfulness. But there is a real moral fault here: we see our neighbour's fault and not our own.
Speaking to the person is the first step, not the only one. If he will not listen, there is a next step.
An individual has wronged me: how am I to act? So I act toward him in brotherly love. I go and say, "Brother, you have done me wrong." First of all there is this appeal in righteousness. Yet the path must not move outside the scope of grace. Having done this, if he will not hear me, I take with me one or two more.
- Heart first. The command starts inside. Hidden hatred toward a brother is the deep wrong, and the law forbids bad thoughts as well as bad actions.
- Speak, don't store. Hatred wants silence or gossip. The answer to both is to go straight to the person.
- Silence costs. Saying nothing may look like patience. But it leaves your brother's conscience defiled.
- Love is not tolerance. Forgiving a wrongdoer and going along with the wrong are opposites. At the cross, God showed forgiveness and His refusal to tolerate evil at once.
- Check the speaker. No one is fit to point out a fault until he can say "Brother" and mean it. Otherwise it is comparison, not love.
Thou shalt not avenge thyself, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself I am Jehovah.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.