Commentary on Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18

The central concern in Leviticus 19 is how a holy God can dwell in the midst of the Israelites. 

The gospel reading for today (Matthew 22:34–40) quotes a verse from Leviticus 19, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” In Matthew, the context for the quoted phrase is a discussion between the Pharisees and Jesus about the greatest commandment. The Pharisees approach Jesus to “test” him (Matthew 22:34). One of the Pharisees, an expert in Mosaic law, inquires of Jesus, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 

The details in Matthew’s gospel point toward the purpose of the question. The inquiry is an opportunity to assess Jesus’s interpretive skills. The Pharisees, seeing Jesus’s popularity, wonder whether he can understand and teach the law of Moses well. 

In response, Jesus quotes from two texts. Jesus emphasizes that the command to love one’s neighbor (Leviticus 19:18), along with the command to love God with one’s whole heart, soul, and mind (Deuteronomy 6:5), together serve as the foundation for the entirety of Scripture. He concludes his answer thus: “On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:40). This is a striking answer. He does not answer the question of priority directly. Rather, Jesus instead cites two texts that offer an elegant summary of legal tradition’s central theological claim. Jesus summarizes the legal tradition as wholehearted love for God and wholehearted love for others.

Returning to examine Leviticus 19 offers context for Jesus’s use of the quotation about love for others. In so doing, we notice a surprising detail. The text does not focus first on commands at all. Rather, it points our attention first to divine character. In the opening verse, the chapter is introduced as one long divine speech. The first-person address begins with an instruction that Moses address the whole congregation of the Israelites and say, “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). 

This command, and similar language, informs how we read the entire collection of laws in Leviticus 17–26. Often referred to as the Holiness Code, these chapters emphasize that human ethics are grounded in a statement about God. Specifically, it argues that God’s holiness serves as the beginning point for all communal expectations. 

Chapter 19 is shaped by the repeated use of the phrases “I am the LORD,” and “I am the LORD your God.” God’s proper divine name is repeated 16 different times and serves as a central refrain throughout the text. There is a kind of cadence to Leviticus 19 as a pattern emerges. A command is given. God states his name. 

In today’s lectionary reading (verses 1–2; 15–18), this is precisely what we find. Verses 15–16 issue prohibitions against unjust judgments, showing partiality, slandering, and standing idly by when a neighbor’s blood is at stake. These statutes conclude with the phrase “I am the LORD.” Verses 17–18 resume the language of command: not hating anyone of your kin, reproving one’s neighbor, not taking vengeance or bearing a grudge, and loving one’s neighbor as yourself. The commands again conclude with the statement of God’s identity: “I am the LORD.”

The alternation between statements of God’s name and divine commands governing communal responsibilities is important. Narratively, the book of Leviticus is situated just after the establishment of the tabernacle at the end of Exodus. This narrative context and the theological framework within which the laws are given suggest a central problem at the heart of the text. How are God’s people to live in a way that is hospitable to the holiness of God? Leviticus 19:2 has suggested a first attempt to answer this question: “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.” Human behavior is modeled on divine character. 

What, then, constitutes holy living in the view of Leviticus 19? The chapter details a wide range of legal expectations. Legal topics include sacrificial practices, protections for the resident aliens and the vulnerable; issuing fair judgments, not eating the blood of animals, proper sexual relationships, just business practices, and honoring parents, among others. Some of these commands fall under the auspices of care for the neighbor, such as not stealing and not rendering an unjust judgment. Several others, however, have a less obvious connection. These include a prohibition against breeding animals of different kinds and not wearing a garment made of two different materials. 

The broad range of legal material might cause one to wonder what ties all these varied laws together. But the diversity of topics covered is precisely the point. Holy living is a comprehensive way of life. It touches on every aspect of the community’s experience: food and eating practices, liturgy and worship, familial relationships, civic life, agricultural and business practices. Commands are aimed at a way of living that makes possible God’s presence among the people. 

Leviticus 19, then, is not an arbitrary set of laws but an elegant theological text. It begins with a statement of the divine name and character. And it calls for a way of human living that is imitative of God’s own character. Grounded in knowledge of God’s name and character, the community is to love one another in a way that leads to the flourishing of all. It is this tradition that Jesus invokes in Matthew. He reminds us that the covenantal way of life invites us into divine life, and so into relationship with one another.