Dearly loved by God in Christ Jesus,
There is a fundamental misunderstanding about what God expects of us. Neither the unbeliever out there, nor my own personal unbeliever, my Old Adam, actually believes that the holy God commands nothing short of perfection from us when it comes to his holy will.
It is a bit like a parent telling a child on his or her way out the door for the evening, “Behave yourself.” The parent does not really expect perfection. And, if the child does do something a bit shameful, at least it was not something worse.
That is not what God’s law, his holy will is all about. God expects my entire life to present a contrast to sin and transgression in any form. Anything less than perfect righteousness is unacceptable. One sin condemns us.
God’s holy will for which he demands perfect obedience in one word is love. Love is More Than Just the Command to Behave Yourself. It is God’s command that I be holy just like him. It is God’s command about the way I treat my neighbor.
When God created Adam and Eve, he gave them one simple command: love me by obeying my will and not eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were like God, created his image, holy and able to use their will to obey him. God still expects such perfect holiness from us even though now we are unable by our natural will to obey.
God repeated o Moses his command for perfect obedience. Here we see one of the classic phrases that is the foundation for the truth that the Bible is God’s Word. “The LORD said to Moses, ‘Speak to the entire assembly in Israel, and say to them’.” Moses did not make up the perfect law of love for himself nor for God’s people, God revealed it to Moses who would reveal it to the people. “Be holy because I, the LORD your God am holy.”
Even when Adam and Eve no longer could fulfill this command, God did not withdraw it from them and from us their future offspring. God did not tell them that now they merely needed to try to be like him, or, that he would accept our efforts at holiness as sufficient. God’s command remained unchanged. It is not a general, behave yourself. It is God’s command that I be holy just like him. His holiness is lack of sin and hatred for sin. God expects nothing less from us.
This command comes from “the LORD your God.” He uses both of his names. He is the LORD, the God of faithful grace in the promise to forgive sins in our Savior. He is almighty God, our Creator and Preserver who is a jealous God, who is just and holy and must punish sin and transgression of his holy will.
In the law, God reveals his will, demands we comply perfectly with that will but does not give us any ability to comply. When God commands us in the law to love both him and our neighbor, it is not two commands but one. Jesus told the Pharisee that the first great commandant is to love him and the second, love your neighbor, is just like it. The law is a unit. To break one part of it, as Paul wrote to the Galatians, is to break the entire law and fall under God’s curse.
Love is more than just the command to behave yourself. It is God’s command that I be holy just like him. When we look into the law of love, we see nothing but failure. We heard that last week as Jesus reminded us that sinful thoughts condemn us. We heard it this morning in our gospel. Have you always loved your enemy and prayed for those who have persecuted you? I thought not, nor have I.
That is why God’s eternal Son came into the flesh as Jesus Christ. He loved God perfectly. He offered up his perfect obedience as the all-sufficient sacrifice to his Father that paid for our disobedience of the law of the love. Jesus not only loved God but also treated his neighbor always with love. Love is God’s command about the way I treat my neighbor.
Love for my neighbor has both an example and a motivation. Jesus set the example during his ministry when he fulfilled the command “not to hate your brother in your heart, to rebuke your brother so you don’t share in his guilt, not seek revenge, but to love your neighbor as yourself.” His unselfish love by suffering and dying on the cross even for his enemies including me motivates me to love my neighbor as myself. To love my neighbor as myself means I always give my neighbor the unselfish love Christ has given to me. I also look for that love of Christ from you to me when I have sinned against you.
Jesus gave the disciples an act of that love when he washed their feet in the upper room on Maundy Thursday. Jesus also gave them “a new command, ‘love one another.’” Of course, that command always had been there. Now it was new in the sense of a new application; Jesus giving the greatest act of love on the cross. His act of love would motivate them to act in love in real, practical ways with others even their enemies.
In the verses omitted from the text, the LORD God listed some specific acts of love that present a bold contrast to sin and transgression in any form in our lives. He listed loving your parents, honoring God’s Word, caring for the poor, acting justly, protecting your neighbor’s life, among others.
Here in verse 17 the LORD spoke about going in love to your neighbor who is guilty of sin and rebuke him so you do not share in his guilt by remaining quiet. In verse 18, he forbids seeking revenge or bearing a grudge. The LORD God does not just tell us to behave ourselves. He gives us specific applications of love he fulfilled himself in his active obedience and fulfilled especially in passive obedience by taking our place under God’s wrath and punishment for our sins
“I am the LORD,” our God again tells Moses. Our motivation to love is the name of love our Savior-God calls himself. He is the God of free and faithful love to us in Jesus Christ. God demands perfect holiness of us. God gives us the perfect holiness of Jesus through faith. His perfect holiness compels us to “love your neighbor as yourself.” Amen. <SDG>