Searching for Buried Treasure
Dave Faust
He asked Jesus, 'Of all the commandments, which is the most important?' 'The most important one,' answered Jesus, 'is this: . . . Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these (Mark 12:28-31).
It wasn't surprising when Jesus told a story about a man who found a treasure hidden in a field (Matthew 13:44). After all, Jesus found quite a few hidden treasures himself.
He found Matthew at the tax collector's booth and Zacchaeus sitting in a tree. He found a hero in a Good Samaritan and a missionary in Saul of Tarsus. He found soul-stirring lessons in grapevines, mustard seeds, straying sheep, and lost coins. He told Peter how to find a coin in a fish's mouth—exactly the right amount to pay the temple tax (Matthew 17:27).
Jesus even found hidden treasures in the Scriptures. He discovered one of God's greatest commands tucked away in the book of Leviticus, right in the middle of assorted laws about how to harvest grain and how to cut hair. The New International Version gives Leviticus 19 the bland title, "Various Laws." Yet Jesus found a nugget of truth there surpassed only by the importance of loving God himself: "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18).
Most of us have heard those words so many times they barely penetrate our minds and rarely shape our actions. It helps to notice some other verses in Leviticus 19, which shed light on what it means in practical terms to love our neighbors.
"Each of you must respect his mother and father," God said, for there are no closer neighbors than our own family members (v. 3).
Some neighbors need financial assistance and help getting a job, so God instructed harvesters to leave grain and grapes "for the poor and the alien" to gather (vv. 9, 10).
'Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth' (1 John 3:18).
Love requires uncompromising integrity, so God said not to steal, lie, or deceive, and to pay workers promptly. "Do not hold back the wages of a hired man overnight," he said (vv. 11, 13).
Neighbors with physical disabilities must never be abused or belittled. The Lord said, "Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind" (v. 14).
Everyone deserves to be treated fairly regardless of his social standing. "Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly" (v. 15).
Gossip ruins relationships, so the Lord said, "Do not go about spreading slander among your people" (v. 16).
When our neighbors grow old, they still deserve our love and honor. The Lord said, "Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God" (v. 32).
Neighbors from other nations and cultures must not be mistreated. "The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself" (v. 34).
God's people must be honest in business matters and give customers and clients a fair deal. "Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight or quantity" (v. 35).
Like Jesus, we can find treasures buried in every section of God's Word. And in the process, we'll discover the joy that comes not only from knowing the Scriptures, but applying them to life.
This column first appeared in The Lookout on Jul 22, 2007.
Scarred for Life
I have my share of scars. Little ones, mostly, caused by competing in sports when I was young.
Searching for the Third Place
In *The Great Good Place* (Paragon House, 1991), Ray Oldenburg suggests that most adults organize their lives around three places. The first place is the home, where words like wife, husband, mother, father, parent, and breadwinner express their identity. Next is the workplace, where they find identity in a job title, their professional expertise, and the ebb and flow of the workday. But what is the third place? According to Oldenburg, the third place is the informal setting outside of home and work where your identity is defined simply by who you are as a person, not by what you do for a living or who you count as kin. The third place is a home away from home where friends accept you just as you are.