Last week I started from a verse in Galatians 4 reflecting on our relationship with God.
On Sunday I made a link with what Paul wrote later in Galatians 5 about our relationships with each other.
There, Paul quotes from the Old Testament: “For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’”
So, here’s a question: How many times is this Old Testament verse quoted in the New Testament?
Perhaps most memorably, it prompts the question which leads to one of Jesus’ most famous parables. In Luke 10, Jesus approves a lawyer’s summary of God’s law which includes loving your neighbour. The lawyer, ‘wanting to justify himself’, asks, “And who is my neighbour?” In response Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan, challenging his hearers (and readers) to broaden their understanding of who are our neighbours.
Jesus speaks of loving your neighbour when discussing the law with the rich young man in Matthew 19 and when tested by the Pharisees in Matthew 22. In the parallel passage in Mark 12 it is also repeated with approval by one of the scribes.
As well as the reference in Galatians 5, Paul writes in Romans 13.9 that the law is summed up as ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’. And Jamescalls it scripture’s royal law which we would ‘do well to fulfil’.
That’s eight times Leviticus 19.18 is quoted, approved, and used as a summary of how God calls his people to treat each other, others in their community, and people outside of their community – so I think that’s everyone! It’s clearly an important principle to Jesus and the New Testament writers.
There will be a lot of talk about royalty as we come to the Queen’s Jubilee. How can you… how can we fulfil the royal law to love our neighbours, practically, emotionally, and spiritually?