You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.
– Leviticus 19:18
This is so good. So this whole chapter starts with God saying to his people, you shall be holy for I the Lord your God, am holy, which is our refrain we see throughout Leviticus and obviously throughout the Bible that God calls us to holiness. What’s interesting in Leviticus 19 is the way that call or command to be holy then flows directly into the way you treat others and culminates in this verse in verse 18, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Leviticus 19:18 shows how justice and mercy reflect God’s heart.
So holiness is loving your neighbor as yourself. And the specific things that Leviticus 19 talks about include not stealing or dealing falsely, not oppressing your neighbor, not doing injustice to your neighbor, but doing justice and even specifically caring for the poor and the sojourner, leaving some of the harvest of the land to provide for the sojourner and the poor.
All of this is clearly stated in God’s law here in Leviticus, in a way that throughout the rest of the Old Testament and then into the New Testament, we see this picture among God’s people. The prophets are continually saying, God commands us to care for the poor, to care for the sojourner, to do justice, to love mercy. And it’s why when we get to the New Testament,
Jesus summarizes all of this with those two greatest commandments. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. The same words that we read here in Leviticus 19:18. This is the second greatest commandment. So I just want to encourage you to think today about God’s call to holiness in your life, in the way you love others as yourself, and the way you Philippians 2, look to others’ interests above your own. And as you, Micah, chapter six, eight, do justice and love, mercy work on behalf of the poor and the sojourner and the oppressed, and the hurting and the needy.
Leviticus 19:18 emphasizes God’s heart for people from every background.
This is holiness and God calls you and me to be holy in these ways. It’s interesting.
The people group we’re going to pray for today is the Gujarati people. So there’s three and a half million Gujaratis, mostly in Western India. But it’s interesting because many Gujarati have migrated to countries like Kenya and Uganda where there’s even more access to the gospel. And when I read about the Sojourner here in Leviticus 19:10, I think about the migration of peoples to different nations. And the likelihood is for most of us listening to this right now, God has brought sojourners from different nations, people, groups, to the communities and cities where we live. So what does holiness look like?
Holiness looks like loving people from other nations, other people, and groups who are in our communities, in our cities, loving them as ourselves, and intentionally caring for them. And so we pray, God, help us to be holy as you are, holy specifically according to your Word, not just here in Leviticus 19, but in so many places throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament.
This verse inspires us to seek out the nations in our neighborhoods.
God, we pray, help us to love our neighbors as ourselves today. Lord help us specifically to do justice, to love mercy, to care for poor neighbors or neighbors in need to care for sojourners in our midst. God, we pray you would help us to be a reflection of your love and your care for them. We praise you for the opportunities we have to share the gospel, to share the good news of your grace and your love, and not just to share it, but to show it to the nations right outside our doorsteps in our own neighborhoods.
I think of all the people, even just over the last couple of weeks that I’ve ridden in Uber or Lyft rides with who are from other nations. God help us to faithfully share the gospel with the nations and care for the nations in our neighborhoods and far from our neighborhoods.
Prayer for the Gujarati People
God, we pray specifically today for the Gujarati people. We pray for the spread of the gospel among the Gujarati in Western India, Kenya, and Uganda. We pray that your church would care for and love Gujarati men, women, and children as themselves in Kenya and Uganda in ways that lead them to your love for them. God, please help us today to love our neighbors as ourselves and in this to be holy as you are holy. We pray this in Jesus’ name according to Leviticus 19:18. Amen.