Daily Moral Choices
You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shall fear your God; I am the LORD. You shall do not injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. In righteousness you shall judge your neighbor … you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. (Leviticus 19:14–18 NKJV)
God writes His law upon our hearts in this New Testament age, yet this does not mean that we need no written testimony to its nature. The Word of God is given to us for our edification and moral instruction, as it has in several passages taught us (Psalm 119:9; Romans 15:4; 1 Cor. 10:6; 2 Tim. 3:16–17; James 1:25; 1 Pet. 1:25). Christ taught us to love our neighbors as ourselves, and presented this as the second chief duty of mankind:
Jesus said to him, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37–40 NET)
Christ was quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, uniting the two thoughts to make then inseparable from one another. But the first predominates — love for God, summed up in the ideas of obedience, honor, respect, reverence, worship, and faith toward Him, is the first thing we must do, and upon that basis we then love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
Because of God: Too often our sense of obligation toward our fellow man is based merely on the fear of getting caught doing otherwise or being rebuked and thought less of by others. God in this Leviticus passage above commands us to do right by our fellow human being out of reverence for God, not out of fear of what our neighbor will say.
He commands us to “not curse the deaf,” but the deaf cannot hear our curses, so the matter is first a concern in our relationship with God. Should I mutter under my breath angry and disrespectful thoughts towards those who cannot hear me, whether they be deaf or merely out of range? The answer is, “No.” Here is a point of conviction that we must all feel, for we have all railed against others in anger when they were not present.
This is so common among people that we read in Ecclesiastes:
Do not pay attention to every word people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you — for you know in your heart that many times you yourself have cursed others. (Eccl. 7:21–22)
And the blind cannot see who put the stumbling block in front of them. So we ought to be better than this — not just in public, but also in private and in our own hearts.
In our minds and hearts: Who have you cursed lately? Maybe you did not use so many bad words but you still cursed them, perhaps out of frustration, or because they had hurt you. Confess this to God and seek to be a better person, that while we may be aware of people’s limitations, we should consider them as the blind and the deaf. There is another danger here of thinking too highly of ourselves also. We should not presume to be better than others, but rather see ourselves soberly and clearly (Rom. 12:3).
Do not judge by appearances: Both undue pity toward the poor and unchecked envy or admiration toward the wealthy will pervert justice. Many other scriptures command us to be sensitive to the needs of the poor, in fact, the preceding passage of Leviticus says:
When you gather in the harvest of your land, you must not completely harvest the corner of your field, and you must not gather up the gleanings of your harvest. You must not pick your vineyard bare, and you must not gather up the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You must leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 19:9–10)
But we should not pervert justice in their favor. It is actually a wonderful example of how to help the poor, to give them the opportunity to earn with their own hands their means of life. In fact, we can imagine that a landowner in leaving a bit of his harvest for the poor would learn of some hardworking people, and it might very well lead to their future employment.
And we may admire the qualities of intelligence, diligence, and discipline that led to someone’s success in life, yet justice should still not be perverted in their favor. Fair should be fair for all. Neither the wealthy nor the poor should be deprived of justice, nor treated with injustice.
If we did pervert justice in either one’s favor we would put forth as a principle that money is more important than justice, but it is justice that leads to the greatest benefit for all, and that gives honor and glory to God through human acts. Let us all be happy in our condition and work hard to better ourselves and not envy or idolize those who seem to have more.
Reverence toward God leads to peaceful hearts and sound minds. The message we take from this passage is that it is our genuine private worship of God that will lead to us dealing with others fairly and equitably. There are several other ethical issues discussed in this passage, all of which we will find are expressions of our love toward our fellow man. Love God and then respect all others whom He has created.
