Now, for the last phrase in Leviticus 19:18—“But you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.” The second of the great commandments, and the one that Jesus said was just as important as the first. Let’s talk about this meeting between Christ and the Pharisee for a moment. Before we do, though, let’s frame it in its historical context. At the time, as you may well know, the Pharisees placed a huge premium on keeping the outward commandments of the Law. In His listing of woes to the Scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 23:13-36), He blasts them for doing, doing, doing the outward rituals in order to become righteous. He even prefaces His monologue by teaching His followers to not be like those scribes and Pharisees. Matthew 23:1-12—1 Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, 2 saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. 3 Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. 4 For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. 5 But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. 6 They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, 7 greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, 'Rabbi, Rabbi.' 8 But you, do not be called 'Rabbi'; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. 9 Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. 10 And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ. 11 But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” The reason Jesus was about to castigate the religious crowd of the day was they had forgotten the reason God gave them the Law. It was not as a way to become better than others; it was not meant as a way for them to measure themselves against others as a sort of contest to see who could be “more righteous” (a game still played, by the way, only now they call themselves ‘Roman Catholics’). The Law was actually meant as a way to humble the people, and to show us how utterly detestable we are.
But at this time, the Pharisees had elevated certain parts of the Law, and downgraded others. And among the rabbis, there were many debates about how to arrange the commands in the Law according to their importance. And apparently this fellow wanted to hear Jesus weigh in on the subject. So he asks Christ, in Mark 12:19—Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, "Which is the first commandment of all?" Look at what Mark says about the man. Then one of the scribes came, and…perceiving that He had answered them well. He was not trying to trap Christ in His words; he was not tempting or testing the Lord. He was seeking to hear more. He realized that Jesus was speaking words of truth. And so Christ answers, and I'm sure many of us can tell this off the top of our heads, Mark 12:30-31—29 Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is: 'Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. 30 And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment. 31 And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." Notice how He phrased His answer: He says the first command is to love God, and then He says the second is like it. This makes the one intertwined with the other, so that if you do not love God, you cannot love your neighbor. And, if you do not love your neighbor, you do not love God (see James 3:9).
This man went on, and paraphrased the words of the prophet Hosea, who wrote these words from God, in Hosea 6:6—“For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” And in paraphrasing this passage, he told our Lord, Mark 12:32-34—32 So the scribe said to Him, "Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. 33 And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." So out of all these commands we’ve studied since Exodus 20:1 up until now, having lost count of how many and how diverse they have been—out of all these commands, including the Ten Commandments, this command here, to love your neighbor as yourself, is placed above all the commands against murder, theft, idolatry, homosexuality, bestiality, and eating shrimp. Paul would echo Jesus’ words, in 1st Corinthians 13:1-13. We all know, of course, that 1st Corinthians 13 is “The Love Chapter” and Paul says that even if he could do just about anything—speak with the tongues of angels, prophecy, have the gifts of knowledge and wisdom and understand all the mysteries of God and give everything he had to the poor and even give his body to be burned—if it were possible for him to do all those things but lack one, he would be as lost as the worst infidel. And what was that one thing he could not lack? Love. He would be a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal; in fact, he said if he had not love he would be nothing. If it were possible for him to keep the other 612 commandments in the Law, if he did not love his neighbor as himself, he would be consigned to the fires of Hell. Loving one’s neighbor was just as essential to one’s salvation as loving God with all heart, soul and strength. All other commands paled in comparison to these two.
Leviticus 19:19—“‘You shall keep My statutes. You shall not let your livestock breed with another kind. You shall not sow your field with mixed seed. Nor shall a garment of mixed linen and wool come upon you.’” Remember the commands against eating certain animals? What was the lesson God was teaching them at that point? Was it a lesson in lowering their cholesterol? Was it a lesson in some sort of health concern? If they ate a clam were they going to be struck down dead? No. The purpose behind the prohibitions was to teach them a lesson about separating things. Keeping themselves separate from sin; differentiating between clean and unclean, between holy and profane (Exodus 11:45-47). Same here. God made nature in a certain order. He made cows; He made horses; He made dogs (poodles, however, are an aberration of nature and therefore unexplainable by humans); He made snakes. He made all these things to multiply after their own kind (see Genesis chapter 1). He also made man. And out of all the tribes of man, He took the Israelites, separated them from any other people on earth—doing so, in fact, hundreds of years before they got to Mt. Sinai (see Genesis 12:1-3). But God also knows the mind and the heart of man. He knows that even though He had separated these people out from the other peoples, the men would have a proclivity to go after the women from the pagan nations. And did they ever. David. Solomon. And long before them, the people of Israel went whoring after the women of Moab— even after God had spared them from being cursed by Balaam, who was trying to lure them into being seduced by the women of Moab (see Numbers 22-25)! So here, God gives them another object lesson about not mixing the people of God with the unholy pagans.
Let’s take a quick look at each one of these. First, God forbids them from unnaturally mating with beasts of the field. Think of a cow. What kind of animals do cows, by their own natural inkling, mate with? “Ummm…cows.” Good answer. Do you think a cow would ever try to mate with a horse? Or a donkey? No. But, in much the same way that Egyptian mythology was filled with creatures half-human/half-animal, many other mythologies have been filled with fantastical creatures which were some combination of animals. This was a way of discouraging such heathenish practices among the people of God.
Second, He warns them not to mix the grain of the field. Many of the pagans surrounding them worshipped some sort of fertility god, who they believed would give them abundant crops and thus these people would take up a sort of agricultural alchemy, combining all different kinds of seeds, hoping that their ‘god’ would give them some new kind of crop that would produce far greater numbers than before. But we have a couple New Testament passages that deal with seed and with grafting one tree into another—and how it is God who produces the desired results. First, we have Jesus’ parable of the soils. He tells of a sower that goes out and sows seed (which is the Word of God). Some of it lands by the wayside and is snatched away by Satan. Some of it lands on rocky ground, where it has no depth and when the heat of persecution comes it withers and dies. Some of the seed falls among thorns, and when they are persecuted for the word, their life is choked out. But the seed that lands on good soil—that is the seed that grows thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold (Matthew 13:8). Was there anything different about the seed? No. Same seed. If you want to think of the good soil as the “control group” (to use a research term), then that seed falling on good soil tells us that it is not the seed that causes the problem—rather, the soil must be prepared for the seed. And if the soil is bad, then the seed, no matter how good and pure and perfect, cannot grow because the soil is not usable. So who is it that makes the soil ready? Who is it that is the real source of life, the One who causes the seed to grow? It is none other than the Great Husbandman. 1st Corinthians 3:5-6—5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
And when we combine the parable of Christ with the warning from Leviticus, we actually see a warning to the church—that a sower of the seed (the Word of God) is not to mix the good seed (the Word of God) with any other kind of seed. Satan does enough of that, and we can see the results today (see the parable of the wheat and the tares, Matthew 13:24-30). A passage that talks about grafting two trees is found in Romans 11:17-24—17 And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, 18 do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19 You will say then, "Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in." 20 Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. 22 Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. 23 And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? Paul compares the church to the wild olive tree, and old covenant Israel to the natural olive tree. The point Paul makes is that God, being the great Husbandman, knows how to graft the two olive trees together to get one tree that will bear fruit for all eternity. And even though, in nature, these two trees would reject each other, it is God who causes all things to work together, and create from two trees one tree to His glory (see Ephesians 2:11-14).
Third, God tells the people not to wear clothing made from mixing wool and linen. You can wear wool. You can wear linen. But do not mix the two. To many, this may be the most perplexing of the prohibitions in Leviticus 19:19. “What’s the big deal about mixing fabrics? I mean, don’t we all wear some kind of cotton/polyester blend clothing all the time?” That may be true—if we didn’t go beneath the surface and find what God is actually trying to tell us here. What this is, beyond the pale of human understanding, is a warning to all Christians—do not mix Law and Grace. “OK, what in the world are you talking about? How do you get ‘don’t mix law and grace’ from ‘don’t mix wool and linen’?” Well, what is the source from which wool comes? Well, wool comes from sheep. Is not Jesus our Good Shepherd? Is not Jesus our Savior? And how are we saved? By grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8). So then, wool is symbolic of the fact that we are His sheep, saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
Now, the linen—this was the material which made up the priestly garments. Do we now take an animal to a priest to be killed, cut up and burned in order to atone for our sins? No. Christ has done that already. That was the Law—you sin, you kill an animal. Yet there are many, still today, who mix law and grace, who say “We are saved by faith in Christ—but you still gotta keep the rules to keep yourself saved.” If you remember the late Garner Ted Armstrong, or his father Herbert W. Armstrong, they were in the line of the Worldwide Church of God (otherwise known as the Philadelphia Church of God, and its offspring which go by many names. It now bills itself as Grace Communion International. Hmm, Grace Communion…how ironic). They teach that Christians are commanded to keep the old covenant feasts, and that if you don’t you're not saved. That, my friends, is the very definition of mixing wool with linen—wanting to mix the wool of Christ’s grace with the linen of the Law. And by doing so, one will not be saved. Galatians 5:1-4—1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. 2 Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. 3 And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. 4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. Emphasis on verse 2, if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. Nothing. If that little clause is not enough to make people go running and screaming away from any group that tries to foist the bondage of the Law upon them, and go running toward the cross and hang their arms about the neck of our dear Savoir—I don’t know what will. Nothing. You can believe in Him all you want—but if you still cling to the Law, then Christ will slip from your grasp, and you will be left holding the wind. Period. They have clothed themselves in garments of wool mingled with linen. And those garments will shield them from neither the stain of sin nor the wrath of God.
Part 4 next week
