December 29, 2024

Passage Read: Leviticus 19-22
Meditation Verses: 19:17-18

Thought

It is hatred to not rebuke your neighbor frankly and clearly, and it's a sharing in his guilt. It can also be like seeking revenge against them or bearing a grudge against them. These two sets of commands are bookended by the instructions to not hate a neighbor but love them. Yet certain sins require cutting people off from the community. Is that revenge or holding a grudge? Or because it is a case that has been judged by the community, therefore the cutting off, likely expelling them, is not counted as revenge but justice and the cutting off is not counted as holding a grudge but carrying out sentence.

Application

The loving response to a neighbor in sin is to rebuke them. The hateful response to a neighbor in sin is to leave them unrebuked so that they will suffer the consequences from God or the community for their sin, as if seeking revenge or holding a grudge against them. You want them to get in bigger trouble or something worse to happen to them. But neither do these commands say that I must bring them to repentance or nag them into repentance. I only need to rebuke them, not multiple times, but once, to fulfill my duty to love them. If they ignore the rebuke, and I don't say anything any more, that is not necessarily seeking revenge or holding a grudge. How they respond is on them. I suppose the question is whether I want them to suffer and whether I can receive them back into fellowship after they repent, even if it takes decades.