Love your Neighbour

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Our society has a problem with law and with authority – the Tottenham riots, politicians expenses scandals etc. etc.  trace back to Descarte 'I think therefore I am' or to French revolution, or to garden of Eden… wherever it came from it's clear that it's getting worse…

More than that this passage a problem for us- summed up by new atheists … (e.g. Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins) what we're doing tonight – they say there is no other area of human endeavour where ideas from 3 ½ thousand years ago are still considered valid and better than modern thinking – so why should law of Moses have any role in our thinking today.

And for Christians another layer of difficulty – some Christians argue essentially that Jesus finished with the law, we don't need it any more.  They quote passages like Rom 7.4-6:  Dead to the Law; Rom 6.14: Not under the law but under grace; Gal 3.10:Those who rely on obeying the law are under a curse ; and  Gal 5.18: If led by the Spirit then not under law.  Or Hebrews7:12where there is a change in the priesthood there must also be a change in the law.

So they conclude that we don't need the law – it's old, superseded, fulfilled and irrelevant.

And this passage difficult for a preacher – most of the things I want to say aren't in the passage, and the passage has too many things that I need to say…

So tonight I'm going to break the rules.  Instead of strictly preaching the passage as we try to do, I'm going to do something else..

What I want to do is to try and

1)    explain how we relate to the law as Christians

2)    Show how those principles work out in practice by very quickly showing what that means to these six commandments; and

3)    Open up for questions to try and get to the heart of the issues

So first how do we relate to the law?  Well you've heard a lot of passages from Paul that suggest we've moved past it, but listen to this one:

20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. (1 Cor 9 20-21)

I believe the law of Christ means the law of Moses, understood through the lens of Jesus – all of it pointing forwards to him, all of it fulfilled by him, and now all of it understood and applied by us through him.

The old reformation division of the law into three rough categories is helpful – some of the law relates to the ceremonies and religious practices which are primarily understood as pointing forward to Jesus – read Hebrews to see this put into practice – these things are fulfilled in Christ and we don't do the shadows anymore, we learn them to understand what Christ has done for us as our high priest, our sacrifice for sin, our great day of atonement, our true temple, true Passover and so on and so on.  So those elements of the law that were ceremonial or religious were shadows that point forward to Christ – to live by them today is to trust in what Jesus has done for us.

Other elements of the law were to do with the civic laws ofIsrael– they were the criminal and civil law code of the national grouping ofIsrael.  We don't live inIsrael, we need to see that these two have to be translated into our new circumstance where Christ rules his people scattered throughout the earth.  There is no national grouping to which this penal code can be applied. So we again look for how these laws are fulfilled in Christ and point us to him.

Finally we have the moral elements of the law.  Again we don't just take things holus bolus from OT, but we need to work through what are the moral implications of the things taught and how do they rest on God's eternal character – God's righteousness, his goodness, his holiness.  How can we argue that – well simply to say that the law of Moses is not an arbitrary morality, but rests on and expresses the righteousness of God.  It unfolds God's good nature, what is right in his sight.  These things don't change over time, but again we need to understand them in relation to Christ.

What does that do to the law? We are not under the condemnation of the law – it teaches us what we deserve, but it can not give it to us, Jesus has taken the punishment of the law for us.

We do not keep the law in order to get right with God – we can not get right with God by what we do, and we will never keep the law fully and perfectly.

However, we do obey the law, and to obey it in it's fullest application – as Jesus taught us in the NT (think of sermon on the mount).

So the law reveals sin as sin; points us to Christ – both as saviour from laws condemnation and as fulfilment of law; and continues to show us how to live as God's people, when understood through the lens of Jesus.

So tonight, having said all that I want to try and show how it applies to this most focused section of the law.

What are the ten commandments – the moral centre of the law.  Summarise the wider teaching of Exodus to Deuteronomy, and are interpreted and applied in the rest of the Exodus to Deuteronomy.  They are general principles which need to be unpacked to be fully understood, but which are deliberately general so that they apply widely.  The whole law was summed up in Deut 6.5 (love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength) and Lev 19.18 (Love your neighbour as yourself).  That's what Jesus said isn't it – he quotes those two verses and says 'all the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments' (Matt 22. 36-38).

Last week we heard the first of those – love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength.  Tonight we see the second expanded in these last 6 commandments – love your neighbour as yourself.

In what does love for our neighbour consist – well at the very least it means keeping these six commandments.

12 "Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

13 "You shall not murder.

14 "You shall not commit adultery.

15 "You shall not steal.

16 "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour.

17 "You shall not covet your neighbour's house. You shall not covet your neighbour's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour."

And since al the law and the prophets hang on these commandments we could spend all year explaining them - there's far too much here to explain each of these fully in the terms that I've been talking about, so what I want to do is to look at one of them thoroughly as a case study and then really quickly run you through a summary of the rest. And then if we've got time we'll stop for questions.

Since it's the first, we'll do the fifth commandment most fully, so turn to verse 12:

"Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

What does this mean?  Well we can all see the basic meaning can't we – don't dishonour your parents.  So a sort of minimum bottom line says respect your parents; when you're young, obey their instructions, listen to their wisdom and accept their discipline, don't talk back to them.  When you grow up, don't live a disreputable life, but work at being the responsible adult they always wanted you to be.  And when they get old, don't just dump them in a home and forget about them, look after them, care for them.

That's a bare minimum isn't it?

But the commandment had a much greater range of applications than just our relationships within our family. The commandment reflects God's good ordering of the world.  And in God's good ordering of things there are authority structures.  Indeed the family is the basic building block of society (incidentally this is why we must not redefine marriage – that is to undo the foundations that we're standing on – undo marriage and you undo families and so you undo society).  Therefore in it's widest application this commandment speaks to us as individuals in communities, with authority structures all around us, there are people in authority over us and we need to respect and honoured them; and for almost all of us there will be people under our authority who depend on us and our leadership.  When we're in authority we are not to exercise it wilfully and disrespectfully, but like parents with their children, authority is to be used for those we lead, for their good and building up.

So the command teaches respect for authority – all authority is derived from God the Father; the family is the basic unit of society, the command teaches us to honour authority – that's why in NT books like Ephesians and Colossians 'honour your father and mother' is quoted in the midst of teaching that includes all authority structures in society and home – husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and slaves; and else where rulers and citizens. From this one command comes the imperative to show respect for authority – respect the rule of the boss at work, respect the rule of parents at home, respect the rule of the state in law keeping.

And even as I've said that we also see that the commandment is directed in the first instance to the Israelite people – it contains a promise that they will live long in the land that the LORD their God was giving them.  This is a commandment toIsraelin the first instance, and a promise to them in their national situation.

But it is interesting isn't it that time after time studies come back revealing that a stable society that is made up of stable families with proper discipline and love is better for its members than an unstable society where families are unstable and marriage isn't for life and children don't respect their parents – and don't we know from experience that the more you weaken marriage and parents the more authority is eroded in society in general?  The more we in the West have moved away from marriage as the norm the more we have seen how true this is.  Perhaps we can say that in keeping these commands we live as we were designed to live and so experience the blessings of working in line with our nature and purpose.

And of course remember the maximal application is love – if authority is good for us and good for our society then we work for the good of those in authority – and so Paul tells us to pray for those in authority over us; slaves work hard for their masters, even the bad ones; church members pray for their ministers so their service will be a joy and not a burden; children obey your parents willingly – we are to help the authority structures God has instituted so that they work.  Perhaps in democratic society we can extend this to voting and to informing our representatives of our views on issues and to paying our taxes willingly and on time.  You might be able to think of more wide ranging applications still.

But time is against us, so let's much more quickly run through the remaining five commandments:

13 "You shall not murder.

 don't kill don't hurt don't hate, despise or disrespect in your heart, don't be bitter and angry towards others don't wish bad for someone else; maximal application, wish the best for others, remember Jesus 'love your enemies and pray for them' seek reconciliation – as far as it is possible live at peace with all men turn the other cheek pursue good for your neighbor pursue conditions that make for life anti-abortion good government pro-care for others – social justice care for the poor and the needy care for widows and orphans care for aliens and strangers care for those less fortunate than ourselves  

14 "You shall not commit adultery.

 ·          Don't have sex with someone who is not your husband or wife o         Don't have sex outside of marriage or outside of your own marriage or within someone else's marriage o         You can not love your brother while having sex with his wife ·          Sex to be used as God designed and intended it – can not say God is not interested in what happens inside the bedroom between consenting adults, he is, he regulates it according to his design – within marriage, between one man and one woman voluntarily committed to each other for life. ·          Sex is good and to be protected – part of the beauty of marriage that it should not be shared outside of marriage ·          Jesus says don't look on someone else lustfully, or with lustful intent, in order to lust on them ·          Don't seek sexual pleasure at the expense of others good o         Don't look at pornography o         People talk about 'using pornography' – no good use of pornography, all pornography is degrading to so called user and to the people who make it.  If you need pornography to get aroused using it will only make it worse ·          Paul says in 1 Cor flee from sexual immorality (probably thinking of Joseph fleeing from Potiphar's wife) – do whatever it takes to get away from temptation, at speed, before your resolve gives out. o         Not wrong to be tempted, wrong to entertain temptation and toy with the idea of it, when tempted take immediate action to get out of there o         Don't put yourself in temptation's way o         Do not entertain any thoughts for any length of time – tell your temptation to your spouse or a trusted friend, lest it get a foothold in your mind o         Do not maintain any sort of a relationship with someone who tries to form an inappropriate relationship with you ·          Men particularly treat women with respect – as sisters, not as sex objects ·          Women be careful how you dress and act – don't be provocative, - a woman is not at fault if she's attacked sexually, the man needs to take responsibility for his actions, but don't encourage people to see you that way, can be a sexual being without being provocative – 'if you've got it flaunt it' is a very wrong way to think ·          Remember Jesus never had sex, don't think that sex is so wonderful and important that you'll never be fulfilled without it, that is a lie from the devil  15 "You shall not steal. Do not take what belongs to someone else Respect property rights Don't take mill stone in pledge so deprive neighbour of means of work Don't' take coat in pledge and leave neighbour in the cold Don't move boundary markers and take neighbours land At work don't take home stationary etc. Don't steal your bosses money by failing to work for it Don't gamble – it's all about the hope of getting what you did not work for from someone else (institutionalized theft).  The bigger the pool of gamblers the less you feel it, but you are hoping to take from someone else what they worked for so you can have what you did not work for  

16 "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour. Don't lie Tell the truth Don't try to undermine your neighbour's good name by sharing things that show them in a bad light – don't gossip Remember that if all you did was to be spread around to your neighbours you would be an object of gossip and scorn too – so if you would rather not hear it about you, don't say it about others Work to uphold the truth by not being selective with it – the whole truth and nothing but the truth Since goal is love don't hear this telling you to be brutally honest Simon Cowell style – can't say I'm only being honest if it did not need to be said and only said it to tear someone else down. Might be better not to watch those shows Build people up with your mouth instead of  tearing them down

17 "You shall not covet your neighbour's house. You shall not covet your neighbour's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour Doesn't mean don't notice that things are desirable, but do not resent them for having it and wish that you had it instead. Some one else gets what you wanted for yourself – promotion, the girl or the boy, the nice life in the suburbs, recognition, awards, glory… celebrate their success with them and hope it doesn't do them harm Want good for your neighbours not just for you  

In short the commandments are fully kept when we actually love our neighbour as ourselves.

In short we can not keep them – when ever you are tempted to think you are living rightly before God stop and think through this list again.  So the commandments humble us before God and reveal the depth of sin in us.

Time for Questions... 

And when you've got time read through the list and think about how these things informed Jesus life – how he only ever loved his neighbour and how he honoured not just the letter of these laws, but also the spirit of them.  And that will highlight for you just how short we fall of keeping them.  You get a clue in Jesus summary of the sermon on the mount: 'be perfect therefore as your father in heaven is perfect'.  Not going to happen anytime this side of heaven.

And we need to keep coming back to these commandments and trying to think through their maximal application.  And we need to commit ourselves to obedience to them.  Otherwise we find ways to weasel out from under them – the heart is deceitful above all things says Jeremiah.  Just look at the Episcopal Church in theUS, they bless same sex unions, they have appointed active homosexuals as bishops.  And they say they are following the leading of the Holy Spirit.  Not possible to reconcile with large tracts of the Bible, but they rejected the law, then they rejected the ethics of the New Testament that sounded too much like the law and in the end they defined 'love your neighbour' as show approval and acceptance, without criticism or critique.  There is no room for repentance in their gospel of acceptance.

  We can see that because our culture hasn't moved that far yet, but we do the same thing, we follow the culture and baptise what our culture says.  We find it hard to critique our own materialism, individualism and, well lets be blunt, greet, lust and spirit of negative competition – I'll cut you down so I can big myself up.  We need an anchor to keep awakening our conscience, which is what these commandments do.

The commandments reveal sin to us – expose our hearts and reveal the sin that is there.

In doing that they reveal to us our need for Jesus - You and I need Jesus' forgiveness, we always need to look away from our own performance and look back to the cross to see our sin dealt with there.

But we can't stop there – because the commandments still reveal God to us – his character, his will; therefore we still need to obey the commandments – not in order to be saved, not to get right with God; but because we belong to him, he's bought us at a price and this is how he commands us to live.  Work hard to understand them through Jesus; and when you fail to keep them look to Jesus for forgiveness; and don't despair when you fail because you will fail  – but still, work hard to keep them.

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