Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 19-21.

While many of the commands in this passage have been deprecated by Christ’s death on the cross, the central theme remains: “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.”  We might argue over what that means, over what it means to be holy, but looking at some of these commands which are still entirely relevant reveals the answer to that.

• Do not steal
• Do not lie
• Do not deceive one another
• Do not defraud your neighbor
• Do not hold back wages
• Do not do anything which endangers your neighbors life
• Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge, but love your neighbor as yourself

That last one really sums it all up, love your neighbor as yourself.  One of the things which is often pointed out is that if you are to love your neighbor as yourself, you need to love yourself.  The passage even contains a lesson on how to go about that, and it is a difficult one.  It tells us not to bear a grudge, which is really hard.  We are not loving someone if we seek revenge against them or bear a grudge.  What makes that even harder for many people is that they bear a grudge against themselves for things they did, or did not, do in the past.  In order to love others you must love yourself and you cannot love yourself if you harbor a grudge against yourself for your past actions.  We must accept God’s forgiveness and forgive ourselves so that we can love others.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.