God's Third Law That Eliminates Slavery (And Closes Any Loopholes) (Leviticus 19:17-18)
Exodus 21: God's Emancipation Proclamation
When we talk about slavery, it’s impossible to ignore race.
And immediately, many people fear we’re going political.
But step back a minute.
When God created humanity, He created us in His image. He created us to look like Him — all of us:
God created humankind in His own image,
in the image of God He created them,
male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:27 NET)
No one is left out, here. God didn’t create one kind of human in His image, or one class of people, or one group of people. We’re all His kids.
Or to say it another way:
God sees all skin colors and loves all skin colors.
Some people like to say that God is color blind, that He doesn’t see our differences. But God is a master artist. He sees all our colors and loves every one of them.
God sees you.
God sees your color.
And God loves you, exactly as He made you.
If we all lived this way — if we all believed this about ourselves and our neighbors — slavery could never exist.
Which is why God embeds this into His Law.
No matter how well-written a law is, someone will always try to find a loophole. God provided a direct counter to this.
Buried in the middle of the Law — or some might say, in the heart of the Law — God declares His heart:
You must not harbor hatred against your brother in your heart. Directly rebuke your neighbor, so that you will not incur guilt on account of him. Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against any of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD. (Leviticus 19:17-18 BSB)
Let’s break this down to pull out all the culture-killing ideas God replaces with life:
You must not harbor hatred against your brother in your heart
God created every human in His image. We all have one Father. Therefore God commands us: don’t hate each other. Don’t hate openly and don’t harbor hatred privately. Don’t build up systems and divisions that perpetuate hatred through the generations.
Directly rebuke your neighbor, so that you will not incur guilt on account of him.
If your neighbor is sinning, don’t let him catch you in his sin. Confront him so that he acknowledges what he’s doing and changes.
This includes all sin. But given that the sentence before addresses hatred, it’s clear that God views hating each other as uniquely terrible. If your neighbor is harboring hatred against anyone, rebuke them for their hatred. Show them that the person they hate God made in His image. Break down the divisions of hatred and invite your neighbor to love.
Do not seek revenge
People will hurt us. When they do, don’t take violence into your hands and attack. Violence and hatred only divide; they never heal. Leave vengeance in God’s hands. He will protect His children. While He avenges, you love.
Do not […] bear a grudge against any of your people
Do not hate, and do not harbor any of the watered-down children of hatred. Holding a grudge is a form of hatred, harboring thoughts against others that poison you over time. Don’t allow even this. God doesn’t want any divisions between His children, not even socially acceptable grudges.
So far, we have:
Don’t hate
Don’t get drawn into hatred
Don’t seek revenge when wronged
Don’t harbor any form of hatred at all
Instead:
love your neighbor as yourself
Look at your neighbor, whoever they are. Do they look like you? Do they look nothing at all like you? Do they act like you? Do they act strangely? Do they look like people that others taught you not to like? Do they look like people you’ve never been around before?
It doesn’t matter.
You love your neighbor as yourself.
God gives us one bold reason why:
I am the LORD.
The God who made them is the God who made you. Whoever is your neighbor, you love them with the same desire that you love yourself with, because God made that person in His image just as much as He made you in His image.
Yet human hearts are hard. Many whom God commands to love will rebel, seeking any way possible to justify their hate.
Hatred was justified so widely in Jesus’ day that people felt good about themselves for hating those who hated them. If someone was bad to you, if another people group had been bad to your people, if anyone at all opposed you, then freely hate them, because they have set themselves against you.
Into this heart, Jesus again spoke God’s heart:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in Heaven.” (Matthew 5:43-45 NIV).
What does Jesus base His command on? That we may be children of our Father in Heaven, the God who made us and everyone we will ever meet.
We love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us because they, too, bear the image of our Father in Heaven.
We do not get to create classes of people, picking some to be “neighbors” whom we love and others to be “enemies” who we hate. God’s command to love our neighbor is a command to love everyone we encounter. A neighbor is anyone we meet, anyone in proximity to us, anyone whose life intersects with ours. Whoever we encounter, we love, because we share the same Father.
This is why God opposes slavery.
We do not get to create classes of people, picking some to be “equals” whom we enjoy and others to be “lessers” whom we enslave.
You shall not enslave your neighbor.
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
You would never want to be enslaved. You would never want to be abused, oppressed, or treated as a lesser being.
This law of love commands us to love everyone as we want to be loved. Because we don’t want to be enslaved, we cannot enslave anyone. Because we don’t want to be abused, oppressed, or treated as lesser, we cannot abuse, oppress, or treat as lesser anyone else.
You want to be free. You want to be loved. You want to be treated as an equal.
So treat everyone else this way. Love them as you love yourself.