Leviticus 19:15-18
The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Langworthy, preaching
May 18, 2025
In Copenhagen there’s a one-of-a-kind library. It is called “The Human Library”. From a typical library, you borrow a book and learn about the world and its people. From this library, you borrow a human being who is willing to be for you an open book from whom you can learn what it means to be their kind of human being. Each “human book” from this library’s bookshelf represents a group that’s often subjected to prejudice, stigmatization or discrimination due to ethnicity, gender identity, cultural background, social status, disability or lifestyle. You may ask them any question you like, and they’ll tell you about their life, so that you’ll see what it’s like to be a human being like them.
The Bible says there’s no better way to love God than to love others. A major part of loving people is to treat them fairly and righteously – both in how you act toward them and in what you think of them.
Some believe that followers of Jesus should never judge anyone. They’re right if they’re taking “judging” to mean being “judgmental” and condemning others. Yet, if judging means evaluating truth claims and people’s conduct and character, it is both good and necessary. Note, the first verse of today’s scripture commands us to refrain from “unjust judgment” only and then commands us to “judge” our neighbor “with justice”.
While this passage first applied to the ad hoc councils of elders who settled disputes and determined guilt in the villages of ancient Israel, it also applies to the everyday judgments people can’t help but make: whom should I trust, whom should I commend, whom should I contradict and correct? Judging in the sense of dealing with such questions is an essential of life. That’s why Jesus never forbade all judging, but rather commanded His followers to “judge with righteous judgment.”
To judge righteously is to judge free of bias or any self-serving interest. It is to refrain from jumping to conclusions, to follow the facts and to let no personal agenda distort objective discernment. It is to refuse to let our preconceptions, our fondness for certain kinds of folks or our animosity toward others blind us to reality or the right action to take. That’s why in clarifying what it means to judge with justice, this verse specifically states, “You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great.” Financial status is irrelevant to the dispensing of justice; and as wrong as it is to bend the rules to favor the rich because of their wealth, it is also wrong to do so for the poor because of their lack of it – though noting financial status may help one discern the motivation behind a wrong deed which in turn helps one discern how bad the deed is. For example, if a poor person steals food out of desperate hunger, their deed – while still wrong – is not as wrong as if it were done by a rich person out of greed or stingy penny-pinching.
To love others is to judge them justly, and to judge them justly is to keep financial considerations from corrupting our evaluation of their character and conduct. To judge justly is also to keep other factors from corrupting our evaluation. For instance, just as there is “wealth-ism”, there is also “look-ism”. Many favor good-looking people and give them preferential treatment. Some years ago, Newsweek reported studies that showed that less attractive job candidates have a harder time getting hired; and, if hired, of getting promoted – as do older-looking candidates or overweight candidates.
A few years ago, The Wall Street Journal reported studies that showed that many are biased in favor of those who are like them. (This might be called, not “look-ism”, but “like-ism”.) They tend to mistrust those who fail to resemble them in looks or voice. For example, they are suspicious of those who speak with a foreign accent for no other reason than they’re “different”.
The God of love and justice judges people, not on the basis of appearance or any outward factor such as the sound of their voice, but on the heart. God’s people are to judge others as fairly and righteously as He. That’s why, after forbidding slander and “profiting by the blood of your neighbor”, this passage ends with a pair of verses that commence with a command not to “hate” anyone and conclude with one to “love them as yourself”.
It may surprise you that the command not to hate is illustrated by a command to “reprove” (or rebuke) a neighbor when you righteously judge they’ve done wrong. In other words, we are not to hate a neighbor because they do a hateful thing, but care enough about them to confront them – even if, by doing so, we risk their anger or alienation. We are to love them too much to let certain things pass. And, if we fail to make a good faith effort to help them get on the right path again, we ourselves – this scripture says – “incur guilt”.
I’ll never forget a pastor saying, “My most painful experiences have been when I’ve had a problem, and no one loved me enough to tell me about it.” To love like God is not to be blind to people’s faults and sins, but to be bound by a commitment to judge righteously and to do the hard thing of “speaking the truth in love”, as Ephesians puts it. When done right, reproving is done with a humble self-righteousness-free concern for the person – with delicacy and gentle tact if that’s called for but with brutal honesty if that’s called for – though applying the scalpel of correction is always a far cry from swinging the axe of criticism.
Pastor Gordon MacDonald tells of being on a speaking tour in Japan and walking down a Yokohama street with a dear, elderly friend. The name of a mutual friend came up, and Gordon said something unkind about him. It was, Gordon admits, a cruel and unfair remark. Gordon saw a look of pain pass over the face of his companion. Then the old man stepped in front of Gordon and, locking eyes with him, simply said, “A person man who says they love God doesn’t say a thing like that about a friend.”
Gordon says the friend could have stuck him with a knife and it would’ve hurt less. But Gordon is grateful for the faithful wounding his friend gave him. He says it has saved him 10,000 times in the last 20 years from being a jerk. When he’s been tempted to say something unjust and unloving about someone, he hears his friend repeat, “A person who says they love God doesn’t say a thing like that about a friend.”
We sometimes need to be a friend like that elderly man was to Gordon – a friend who, judging with righteous judgment, cares enough to confront and to speak the truth in love. To do good sometimes feels bad, and rebuking always does; but sometimes it is exactly what we must do to love our neighbor as ourselves. And the God we say we love will feel loved when we do, for we will be bringing back to Him a friend He loves!
Write a comment: