#DailyDevotion How Should You Treat Your Neighbor
October 23rd
Read Deut 24:10—25:10
Deu 24:13 You shall restore to him the pledge as the sun sets, that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you. And it shall be righteousness for you before the LORD your God.
Deu 24:15 You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the LORD, and you be guilty of sin.
Deu 24:18 but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this.
Deu 24:19 “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
Deu 24:22 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this.
As we read through the precepts the Lord is giving to Israel one of the things that comes up again and again is how the Lord had and is treating Israel. The basis for the Law, precepts, commandments and the like are based on how the Lord has treated Israel. How the Lord has or is treating you then is how you are to treat your neighbor, the person in front of you. Jesus treats you how He wants to be treated. But we cannot treat Jesus this way. We cannot see him. But Jesus has created man in His image and likeness. So how you want to treat Jesus you treat the person in front of you. That person in front of you is Jesus’ representative.
Whether you treat that person good or badly it is exactly how you would treat Jesus if He were in front of you. James writes, Jas 3:9 “With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.” And the Lord said, Gen 9:6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” The person in front of you is the image and likeness of God through whom you are to pay homage to the Lord.
Like Israel, we are to recount what the Lord Jesus has done for us. That is the basis of how we treat others. What has the Lord done for you? Go and do likewise to the one standing there.
Lord Jesus Christ, grant us your Spirit that we may recognize all that you do for us and give us faith that we may in kind treat those in made in your image and likeness. Amen.