Q: In Matthew 22:39, Jesus quotes Leviticus 19:18 ~ Love thy neighbor as thyself. This is by far the best verse in Leviticus, and one of the best in the entire Bible. But the Bible doesnt apply this command consistently, and sometimes contradicts it. For instance, in Deuteronomy 13:6-10, Hebrews are told that if a member of the Hebrew community -- even a family member or close friend -- entices someone to serve the gods of the surrounding nations, that person must be stoned. And in the New Testament, in Second Corinthians 6:14-17, Paul instructs the believers to Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers and to come out from among them, and be separate. So don't Christians face contradictory instructions about this?
A: Deuteronomy 13:6-10 was limited in its scope of applicability to the nation of Israel in the old covenant. Christians are not obligated to observe that. There is a question of how the Hebrews in the Old Testament could love their neighbor while stoning an idolatry-advocate, but perhaps thats something to comment on directly in posts about Deuteronomy. Here in Matthew, in the setting in which Jesus was speaking, the Jews did not normally take it upon themselves to enforce the death-penalty; that was something which the Romans reserved for themselves to perform (although there was the occasional lynching), so Ill set that part of the question aside for the time being.
In Second Corinthians 6:14-17, Paul instructs the Corinthians to be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, but this does not imply that Paul meant for the Corinthian Christians to stop loving the unbelievers. What is probably in the background here is the issue of trade-guilds in Corinth to which some of the Corinthian Christians either belonged or were thinking about joining. In some cases, membership in a trade-guild could make the difference between having a well-known, well-distributed product and/or skill, or having to do all the work of publicizing ones product/skill on your own.
The catch was, though, that in some cases, to become a member of a trade-guild, a person was required to make a gesture of loyalty to the patron-deity of the trade-guild. And of course this was a no-no for Christians. Paul wasn't telling the Corinthians to break the commandment to love their neighbors here by any stretch of the imagination; he was instructing them to avoid the witness-destroying taint of idolatry that theyd be liable to encounter when joining themselves to the trade-guilds in Corinth that were publicly devoted to some false deity.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
A: Deuteronomy 13:6-10 was limited in its scope of applicability to the nation of Israel in the old covenant. Christians are not obligated to observe that. There is a question of how the Hebrews in the Old Testament could love their neighbor while stoning an idolatry-advocate, but perhaps thats something to comment on directly in posts about Deuteronomy. Here in Matthew, in the setting in which Jesus was speaking, the Jews did not normally take it upon themselves to enforce the death-penalty; that was something which the Romans reserved for themselves to perform (although there was the occasional lynching), so Ill set that part of the question aside for the time being.
In Second Corinthians 6:14-17, Paul instructs the Corinthians to be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, but this does not imply that Paul meant for the Corinthian Christians to stop loving the unbelievers. What is probably in the background here is the issue of trade-guilds in Corinth to which some of the Corinthian Christians either belonged or were thinking about joining. In some cases, membership in a trade-guild could make the difference between having a well-known, well-distributed product and/or skill, or having to do all the work of publicizing ones product/skill on your own.
The catch was, though, that in some cases, to become a member of a trade-guild, a person was required to make a gesture of loyalty to the patron-deity of the trade-guild. And of course this was a no-no for Christians. Paul wasn't telling the Corinthians to break the commandment to love their neighbors here by any stretch of the imagination; he was instructing them to avoid the witness-destroying taint of idolatry that theyd be liable to encounter when joining themselves to the trade-guilds in Corinth that were publicly devoted to some false deity.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
