What Does The Bible Say About Church and Culture pt. 6
Click play below to listen along as you read.
You can also click "Download" to check out today's handout!
Intro
Last week, we talked about who we - as Christians - are to devote our love to. The overwhelming biblical evidence points to the fact that we have been called to love those who belong to the body of Christ and God's Kingdom. But you might be asking, "What about passages like the Good Samaritan, or 'loving your enemies,' or 'caring for the widow and the orphan.'" What do we do with these passages? Do these passages support the idea that we are called to love all people everywhere? Let's take a look!
"Love your Neighbor"
The first example you might think of is probably the most obvious, you may ask “Well what about ‘Loving your neighbor as yourself? As seen in Romans 13:8-10; Mark 12:30-31; Matt 22:37-39; Galatians 5:14; James 2:8, and others? and the story of the good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37’” Well I am glad you asked. Where do you think the NT authors, and Jesus himself, got that phrase “Love your neighbor as yourself? Someone please turn to Leviticus 19:2, and 17-18 and read it for us.
To whom were these passages written? Who was the intended audience? The people of Israel.
Were these instructions directed toward Israelites to practice against the people of Moab, Amon, Edom, Egypt, etc.? Re-read vv17-18– it says “Do not hate a Fellow Israelite” and “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people…”
Everyone look from vv 1-18 and tell me where it says “You oh Israel, do not treat the people of Amon, Edom, Egypt, the Canaanites, Jebusites, Philistines, Egyptians, Assyrians, Moabites, in bad ways?” Notice that it doesn’t.
“But Joshua, 'Neighbor' can still imply their neighboring countries or people across the street right?”
For us today, it could, but for Israel that would be impossible. Why? Because Israelites were called to be a set apart nation that lived separate from the other nations. That is why they were supposed to clear out the Canaanites from the land, so they wouldn’t have other people groups to be their neighbors.
On top of that, v. 17 says “Fellow Israelite,” then immediately compares “fellow Israelite” to rebuking one's neighbor. It’s a 1-to-1. Same thing again with holding a grudge against “your people,” to “love your neighbor.”
The OT Leviticus passage Jesus quotes, the neighbor in question is a fellow Israelite. Since Jesus ministered almost exclusively among the Jews, his teaching about neighbors primarily dealt with those who belong to the people of God.
The Good Samaritan
“Well another counter-argument is the story of the good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37. Didn’t Jesus expand that definition of neighbor to include all people in the whole world? Isn’t that what the parable of the good Samaritan all about?” you may ask? To what people group were Samaritans comprised of?
They were the people from the Northern tribes of Israel. Samaria was the Capital of Israel, while Jerusalem was the Capital of the Southern tribes (Samaria = Samaritans; Jerusalem = Jews)–> Samaritans were Jews too! At least they were half-Jewish because they intermarried with foreigners.
Jesus was inviting his disciples to reach out to estranged Israelites whom they considered half–Jewish. Remember, God’s mission to the Gentiles didn’t begin until Acts 10, and Jesus states in Matt 15:24 that he was only sent to the lost sheep of Israel. Samaritan sheep were simply more lost than others. So the neighbor in this situation was still and Israelite
I will concede however that “the man” going down from Jerusalem is never described as being an Israelite. The text is silent on his ethnicity and whether he was an Israelite or not.
However, the Israelite man– and expert in the Law– asked Jesus “Who is my Neighbor?” After the telling of the parable, Jesus asks, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell to the hands of the robbers?”
The expert responded, “The one who had mercy on him.” A Fellow Israelite–> So, the neighbor to the expert of the law was the Samaritan neighbor man. The Samaritan is the subject of the story, that being the Samaritan was the Torah Experts’ neighbor. Yes, the Samaritan may have been a “neighbor” to a non-Israelite, but the expert in the law is asking “Who is MY neighbor,” to which Jesus answers “The Samaritan.
I will admit that many sermons have been preached on the topic of “everyone is our neighbor,” I used to believe the same thing. However, we a critically looking at the Bible and the words it uses to describe the concept of a “neighbor.” It is the point of this lesson to consider a different interpretation to the question of “Who is my neighbor?”
"Love your Enemy"
Another counterargument is “Well what about “Love your enemy,” as seen in Matthew 5:43-48?”
Read Matthew 5:43-48
Given all of the passages that we have read so far and all of the evidence we have looked at, is it possible that we could interpret this passage as saying that “disciples ought to love fellow disciples who stand in opposition to them?” Gentiles only love fellow Gentiles who act favorably to them. But God’s people are different. We love one another even when our own people irk us, frustrate us, and cause us grief. Is this a viable interpretation?
"Feeding your enemies"
Another counterargument is found in Romans 12:20-21, “If your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Notice that neither Jesus nor Paul instructs believers to love their enemies (or all people in general) in some abstract way. Jesus and Paul teach us how to love the specific enemy currently exploiting us. Notice the kinds of unplanned encounters Jesus brings up when speaking about enemy love: if anyone strikes you on the cheek, if anyone takes your coat if anyone forces you to walk a mile with them. These are all concrete flesh-and-blood encounters. There are specific instances when people enter our turf or cross our paths in hostile ways. Jesus calls believers to face such unplanned confrontations with an intentional enemy-love posture. Not just loving random people everywhere, but intentional love for those who are directly in our lives.
Read Exodus 23:4-5– “When you come upon your enemy’s ox or donkey going astray, you shall bring it back. When you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden and you would hold back from setting it free, you must help to set it free.”
Again, this is Israelites being told how to interact with other Israelites.
So how does the Bible describe our relationship with Non-believers?
Our motive when interacting with non-believers is not one of hostility, isolation, or ignoring them. It is one where we are to lend assistance and perhaps strengthen our relationship, which might ultimately lead them to faith. But it is important to note that living at peace with one’s enemies cannot be equated with the kind of love the NT expects believers to show to one another.
So you may ask, “Well then how are we supposed to interact with non-believers?” When the NT authors talk about how we care for unbelievers–beyond witnessing to them– they prefer the language of acting nobly (Rom 12:17), extending goodness (Rom 12:21, Gal 6:10; 1 Thess 5:15), acting wisely (Col 4:5-6), living quietly alongside them (1 Thess 4:11), behaving properly with them (1 Thess 4:12), being gentle and courteous toward them (Titus 3:2), and showing honor (1 Pet 2:12, 17). But notice that the language of “love” is strikingly absent.
"The Least of these"
What about “the least of these?”
Read Matt 25:40– it says “Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” Talking about fellow believers in the Kingdom.
"Widows and the orphans"
What about care for the “widows and the orphans” found all throughout the book of James? (James 1:26-27)
This passage us very generic and could be interpreted as talking about all people IF it were not for the fact that James 1:9-10, 2:1-9, 14-17 all talk about “the believer,” those in “your assembly,” those “among yourselves,” those who are “heirs of the kingdom of God,” and the “brothers and sisters.”
So to live by faith is to provide for those in the kingdom. The widows and orphans of James 1:27 are the widows and orphans who already belong to the church. There are no other candidates in the book of James for who this is talking about.
"The Poor and Oppressed"
What about the “poor and oppressed?”
Based on everything we have seen so far, this is clearly talking about the poor and oppressed among you. For example in the Exodus story, God didn’t set free all slaves from every nation from their oppression. God specifically only set the Israelite slaves free from Egypt in order to accomplish his mission to create a better place.
Same with Mary’s Magnificat and Zechariah’s song in Luke 1– these passages refer to the people of Israel.
Ashamed of the Gospel?
It feels wrong that the NT strictly talks about love and service being exclusively reserved for fellow believers. It's embarrassing! That’s not what I want my Bible to say. If God cares so much about the world, Why doesn’t he want us to fix it all? Why not love and help everyone everywhere?
If it feels wrong, if it feels foolish to us, that’s because His wisdom sounds foolish to humanity and because we have failed to grasp the genius of his perfect plan. It is because we are still thinking like the world and how the world measures success instead of paying close attention to God’s Word and to God’s Spirit.
So a natural conclusion to all of this is that focusing all of our love toward fellow believers sounds excessively insular and isolationist. However, that is not God’s plan nor his logic. God has called us to embrace and display his kingdom because that is how he plans to draw ALL PEOPLE to himself. This is how God will make it so that THE WORLD MAY KNOW that Jesus was sent for them (John 17:22-23)
Our loving unity is how God wishes to convince the world that God sent Jesus.
Proclaim
It’s surprising to see how relating to unbelievers is such a minor theme in most NT books and completely missing from many of them. What the NT seems to focus mostly on is how believers relate to fellow believers.
The primary issue the NT addresses is not how the Holy Spirit led Jesus and the earliest disciples to bring those who are unbelievers into contact with the better place that God has been working on throughout Bible History. It was to one another. But what about the non-believers?
It is precisely because non-believers are so important to God and God’s plans that he has called us to focus so heavily on being the best tool to carry out his plan. God has to first get his best tool–the church– in tip-top shape in order to do his work. And the best way to do that is to make sure that embrace, display, and proclaim the good news.
Wrap it Up
This was a hard lesson. This is the most difficult lesson when it comes to this new perspective. But I want us to wrestle with it, to think about it, to pray about it, and to meditate on it.