The Leviticus 19 Question

I alluded to this phenomenon in my recent post on Paul and slavery, but I absolutely, without a doubt, believe that 99.9% of us Christians (myself included) pick and choose from within Scripture to create what is called a "canon within a canon." Essentially, we not only pick certain verses, chapters, passages, and stories to cling to, but in doing so, we sometimes supersize them relative to the verses that surround them.

In my Tuesday morning Bible Study yesterday, we tackled this issue head-on, and I realized, while teaching, that Leviticus 19 perhaps encapsulates the dangers of proof texting more so than any other chapter in the Bible. We were originally discussing James 4, which includes a strong admonition not to sit in judgment of others, and the curriculum we were using prompted us to ask ourselves what things we were most likely to judge other people on. I used my own notes to frame that as a discussion on why do we consider some sins so much greater than others.

Now, on some level, that's a no-brainer--stealing someone else's car is different on many orders of magnitude from, say, jaywalking. But Levitical law, with its hundreds of negative commands ("Don't do this") and hundreds of positive commands ("Do this") is used in such a way that some of its precepts do get far more attention than others.

Part of this is by design--the Ten Commandments are prominent for a reason, for instance. They are fundamental laws governing decency and right relationship with both God and one another. But what about the 600-some Hebrew Bible laws not a part of the Ten?

One of the most common arguments I hear goes something like this: "The Bible also says to not wear clothing made of multiple fabrics or to eat fruit of a plant that is less the five years old. We don't bother with those, so why follow its other laws?"

What I recognized during that Bible study, though, was that many of the laws that get cited in those exact arguments come from one chapter in particular--Leviticus 19:
-No sowing fields with two kinds of seeds (19:19)
-No wearing garments of two different fabrics (19:19)
-No fruit from young plants (19:23)
-No cutting facial hair (19:27)
-No tattoos (19:28)

BUT...Leviticus 19 also gives us this immortal command: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself, I am the LORD." (19:18)

So...what on earth are we to do with a chapter that contains many rules that few, if any, of us believers follow in any literal sense today, but that also is the source for one of the greatest laws ever handed down?

I conceded at the beginning of this entry that I am, in fact, guilty of picking and choosing within Scripture (it helps that I am not A.J. Jacobs and have no interest in trying to follow each and every law literally and then write a book about it!). For instance, I do not allow my belief in Scripture to equate into a personal belief in the sanctioning of slavery, or the silence of women, or the committing of what today would be considered war crimes. This does not mean that I consider the Bible to be anything less than the inspired Word of God. And my criteria for my "canon within a canon" comes from Jesus's own words in Matthew 22:

"And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" "He said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."" (Matthew 22:35-40, NRSV)

With surgical precision, Jesus lifted from a chapter of often esoteric regulations the heart and soul of what it means live as a Christian--loving others as you love yourself, presumably without condition or abandon.

The interesting thing is, the verse Jesus cites for loving God--Deuteronomy 6:5--receives a preamble of "Hear, O Israel" in the immediately previous verse of Deut. 6:4. So, its importance is already underscored before Jesus's ministry. But out of the depths of Levitical law, another verse is offered up by God's Son to complement it. And in doing so, Jesus gives me a lens with which to view the entirety of Scripture--does it hang upon the commandments to love God and love everyone else the same way that I want to be loved?

Would such an approach to Scripture appeal to you? How would you resolve the question of deciding how to best follow the Bible? How would you answer the question of Leviticus 19...of how to treat a chapter of religious laws that get dismissed for the sake of argument, except for the one law that may be the greatest exception of them all?

Yours in Christ,
Eric