“You shall love the LORD your God” (Deut 6:4) was the second sentence in the shema, the “Hear, O Israel.” This confession of God’s unity was probably already being recited daily in Judaism in Jesus’ time. It formulates the traditional center of the Torah,7 namely, the commandment to serve YHWH alone and follow no foreign gods, indeed, not only to serve YHWH but to make YHWH the absolute center of one’s life. In short, it was nothing other than a commentary on the first commandment of the Decalogue.
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself” is in the book of Leviticus within the so-called holiness code (Lev 17:1-26:46), where we read:
You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD. (Lev 19:17-18)
“Anyone of your kin,” “neighbor,” “any of your people” here all mean the same thing. The reference is not primarily to one’s physical relations but to fellow believers among the people of God.8 One should be as intensively concerned for one’s brothers and sisters in the faith of Israel and care as much for them as for one’s own family. The latter, in fact, is what is meant by “as yourself,” which is commonly misunderstood in an individualistic sense. The solidarity of the immediate family is thus expanded into a solidarity with every member of the people of God. This is evident again, a little later, in Leviticus 19:33-34, where that solidarity is again expanded to include resident aliens living in the land: in our terms, migrant workers or even the undocumented who work among us.
When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
This, then, is what the holiness code means by “love of neighbor”: practical solidarity within the people of God, a solidarity that respects and supports everyone in Israel, including aliens, just as one would do for the members of one’s own family. What is absent from the holiness code is the still further expansion of the love commandment to the foreigners whom Israelites encounter as “traveling through” their land. For them the ethic is not that of love but the longstanding and very exalted “ethics of hospitality” traditional in the Near East. If necessary, one was required to protect and defend a guest with one’s own life.
What was Jesus doing when he linked together the primary commandment from Deuteronomy 6 and the commandment of love of neighbor in Leviticus 19? First of all, we must be assured that in this he is acting well within the Torah. He is not proclaiming a “new commandment.” He is most certainly not issuing a “new Torah.” All that was already in existence. What is new with Jesus is the tight linkage between Deuteronomy 6 and Leviticus 19, the love of God and the love of neighbor. But even that linking was not altogether new. It was already beginning in Judaism at that time, it was in the air; everything was heading in that direction.9 Of course, we cannot point to an explicit combination of quotations from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 in the time before Jesus. We must consider the possibility that ultimately it was Jesus’ deep understanding that created the linkage.
But did Jesus not understand what was already written in a completely new way, namely, as relieved of its limitations and now applying in principle to all people and not merely to all those in Israel? Here again we should take a closer look. In the letters of John, love of neighbor clearly means love for one another, that is, for sisters and brothers within the church (1 John 3:10-14; 4:20). For Paul as well, agap
Did the New Testament authors misunderstand Jesus? Apparently not, for Jesus himself does not speak about love of neighbor in general, without any reference to place. We must read the texts in which he extends love of neighbor even to enemies with great attention. Then we will see that he is speaking not of those most distant, but of those who are closest, those whom his audience will encounter within Israeclass="underline"
…if anyone strikes you on the cheek
…if anyone takes away your coat
…if anyone forces you to go one mile
Offering the other cheek as well (Luke 6:29), giving one’s shirt as well as the coat (Luke 6:29), carrying a Roman legionary’s pack two miles instead of one (Matt 5:41)—all that assumes immediate contact. In contrast to the Stoics, Jesus never spoke of “universal love.” He was interested in what happens within the people of God—corresponding precisely to Leviticus 19:17-18.
It is true that for Jesus too love has no boundaries because it must equal the love of the heavenly Father, who is gracious even to the ungrateful and the wicked (Luke 6:35 // Matt 5:45). But it has a place where it is at home and where when necessary it crosses the boundaries that may come into being. In this Jesus remains entirely in accord with the Old Testament: love is something concrete. It does not dissipate into universal love but remains tied to the real place of the “community of Israel.” There it is to be made real, even toward strangers, and from there it constantly replenishes its strength.
Love of Enemies
But surely Jesus’ command to love enemies went far beyond all the prescriptions for Israel and in the Torah? Let us look closely once more! The most important text for the command to love enemies in the context of what we are discussing is Luke 6:27-30:10
Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again.
Here and in the following verses we find a composition by Luke, part of the so-called Sermon on the Plain. Luke was making use of a collection of applicable sayings of Jesus that he found in the Sayings Source (cf. Matt 5:38-48). We can see from Luke 6:27-30 how categorically Jesus was capable of speaking. In the sentences quoted, he does not deal with difficulties, conditions, or particular circumstances. He speaks radically, that is, he gets to the root. Therefore the quoted sentences are not formulae to be applied like recipes. They cannot simply be reduced to an ethical system; they are an unwieldy instrument for casuistry.
So, must I give to everyone who asks of me? Jesus would have spoken that demand with an eye to the situation in Israel, where small farmers and day laborers repeatedly needed help from their neighbors or fellow believers to cope with failed harvests or in times of unemployment. For us too the words “give to everyone who begs from you” have not lost their meaning, but they cannot be applied mechanically. Should a mother going through the supermarket with her child fulfill all the wishes that are created there in the most subtle and well-thought-out ways? She would be exercising hatred for her child if she bought it everything it wants and begs its mother to give it.
The same is true of all the other statements about love of neighbor and of enemies. They cannot and must not be used as if they were operating instructions, to be applied mechanically. Rather, we need to keep in mind that biblical statements of this kind have a basis in which they are rooted, namely, the people of God. The continual parade of false interpretations of Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount and/or Luke’s Sermon on the Plain almost all derive from a failure to pay attention to that grounding, that basis supporting the whole.11