Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Is it a sin to pay someone weekly?

"Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight." Leviticus 19:13

Leviticus 19:13 is one of the verses that I use to dismiss Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 when talking to those who wish to tell me that homosexuality is a sin. If 18:22 (Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable) and 20:13 (If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.) must be read literally, so also must be observed the Lords decrees that you; pay workers daily, not wear garments of a blend (polyester/cotton blend), stand up in the presence of the aged, do not spread slander (gossip), not eat from a fruit tree until its fifth year, not cut your hair or beard, and treat foreigners (immigrants) with love.

My contention is that, if you find justification to nullify any of these, you have to use that same justification to nullify all of them. Note that Leviticus 19:37 says "Keep all my decrees and all my laws and follow them. I am the Lord." It doesn't say "unless you agree among yourselves not to", or "unless you have a really good reason to do otherwise." It just says do them! So while I tend towards a literal interpretation of the bible (guided by appropriate study of various translations) I don't accept everything at face value until I've run it through the message of Jesus (see more below).

Hebrews 8 quotes Jeremiah 31 by saying in part:

"For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. 
But God found fault with the people and said: “The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord.
This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.
For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear."

In Romans 13:8-10 Paul says "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law."

Normally I do not like to quote Paul as (I think) he was a deeply disturbed individual, but as long as I 'filter' what he says through the words and message of Jesus, and try to avoid his writings from when he was in one of his psychotic episodes I feel like I'm ok.

Jesus said we simply had to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, and souls, and minds and to love our neighbor as ourselves. When asked to define 'neighbor' he gave us the parable of the good Samaritan, perhaps the most hated and reviled person that a Jewish audience could image. He did that for a reason, and He didn't mention any ritual purification or cleansing that the Samaritan or Jew had to go through. I think it's also important to note that He included 'your mind'; He didn't want us to be ignorant. He wanted us to inquire and understand His message.

I think that all of the Levitical laws, including the one regarding daily payment, are nullified by the new covenant that was brought by Jesus Christ and sealed in His blood. I think Jesus' admonition and Pauls restatements are clearly; to love one another and, after loving God, that is enough.

Love does no harm.

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