You must not harbor hatred against your brother in your heart. Directly rebuke your neighbor, so that you will not incur guilt on account of him.“‘You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him.Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart: thou shalt surely rebuke thy neighbor, and not bear sin because of him.
6 sermons cite this verse
… unloving. But contrary, to fail to lift up your voice like a trumpet and show my people their sin is unloving, put in your margin Leviticus 19 verse 17, listen, thou shall not hate thy brother in thine heart, rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him. Now what's he saying? He's saying that to rebuke sin is loving. To fail to rebuke sin is hate. Love says that we must speak clearly. The preacher who loves is not the preacher who glosses over sin. The preacher who loves is one who speaks clearly. So the first point is simply this. There is a time where we have a discrimination. That is, we look at life and we discriminate according to the word of God. This is right and this is wrong. We make that discrimination and after that discrimination, then there's an appropriation. We choose that which is right. There is an elimination. We refuse that which is wrong. Now here, let's shift gears. And not only is there a time for discrimination, toleration, but there is a time for toleration. I'm talking about good old-fashioned toleration. Now, when our Lord here says, judge not, let you be not judged, He's talking about a person being intolerant of faults in other people. …
… Verse 17, listen, look to it. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart. We'd all say amen to that. Just say amen. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart. Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor and not suffer sin upon him. Now, you know what that verse means? That verse means if you do not point out sin where sin needs to be pointed out, you hate your brother. There are those who will tell you it is unloving. It is unloving to call sin, sin. It is unloving not to call sin, sin. We have a generation of young people who are being sucked down into the swirling sewers of sin and nobody has the moral courage and if you forgive the word, the guts to say, I love you enough to say that is W-R-O-N-G wrong because God says so. And if we love them, we will. If we love them, we will. It is not judging to do that in the sense that Jesus is talking about in the wrong sense of the word. …
Inquire, therefore, whether you have not lived in a way of sin in this regard. Do you not see your neighbour suffer, and pinched with want, and you, although sensible of it, harden your hearts against him, and are careless about it? Do you not in such a case, neglect to inquire into his necessities, and to do something for his relief? Is it not your manner to hide your eyes in such cases, and to be so far from devising liberal things, and endeavouring to find out the proper objects and occasions of charity, that you rather contrive to avoid the knowledge of them? Are you not apt to make objections to such duties, and to excuse yourselves? And are you not sorry for such occasions, on which you are forced to give something, or expose your reputation?—Are not such things grievous to you? If these things be so, surely you live in sin, and in great sin, and have need to inquire, whether your spot be not such as is not the spot of God’s children. (2.) Do you not live in the neglect of reproving your neighbour, when you see him going on in a way of sin? This is required of us by the command of God, as a duty of love and charity which we owe our neighbour: Lev. xix. 17. “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart; thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.” When we see our neighbour going on in sin, we ought to go, and in a Christian way deal with him about it. Nor will it excuse us, that we fear it will have no good effect; we cannot certainly tell what effect it will have. This is past doubt, that if Christians generally performed this duty as they ought to do, it would prevent abundance of sin and wickedness, and would deliver many a soul from the ways of death. …
4. Perhaps no sin of omission more frequently occasions this than the neglect of private prayer; the want whereof cannot be supplied by any other ordinance whatever. Nothing can be more plain, than that the life of God in the soul does not continue, much less increase, unless we use all opportunities of communing with God, and pouring out our hearts before him. If therefore we are negligent of this, if we suffer business, company, or any avocation whatever, to prevent these secret exercises of the soul, (or, which comes to the same thing, to make us hurry them over in a slight and careless manner,) that life will surely decay. And if we long or frequently intermit them, it will gradually die away. 5. Another sin of omission, which frequently brings the soul of a believer into darkness, is the neglect of what was so strongly enjoined, even under the Jewish dispensation: “Thou shalt, in anywise, rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him: Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart.” Now, if we do hate our brother in our heart, if we do not rebuke him when we see him in a fault, but suffer sin upon him, this will soon bring leanness to our own soul; seeing hereby we are partakers of his sin. By neglecting to reprove our neighbour, we make his sin our own: We become accountable for it to God: We saw his danger, and gave him no warning: So, “if he perish in his iniquity,” God may justly require “his blood at our hands.” No wonder then, if by thus grieving the Spirit, we lose the light of his countenance. …
“Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.” A great part of the book of Exodus, and almost the whole of the book of Leviticus, relate to the ritual or ceremonial law of Moses; which was peculiarly given to the children of Israel, but was such “a yoke,” says the apostle Peter, “as neither our fathers nor we were able to bear.” We are, therefore, delivered from it: And this is one branch of “the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free.” Yet it is easy to observe, that many excellent moral precepts are interspersed among these ceremonial laws. Several of them we find in this very chapter: Such as, “Thou shalt not gather every grape of thy vineyard: Thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger. I am the Lord your God.” (Lev. 19:10.) Ye shall not steal, neither lie one to another. (Lev. 19:11.) “Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him: The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee till the morning.” (Lev. 19:13.) “Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling-block before the blind; but shalt fear thy God: I am the Lord.” (Lev. 19:14.) As if he had said, I am he whose eyes are over all the earth, and whose ears are open to their cry. “Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor,” which compassionate men may be tempted to do; “nor honour the person of the mighty,” to which there are a thousand temptations. (Lev. 19:15.) “Thou shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer among thy people:” (Lev. 19:16:) Although this is a sin which human laws have never yet been able to prevent. Then follows, “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart: Thou shalt in anywise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.” [Lev. 19:17] …
Do you now tread in the same steps? What hinders? Do you fear spoiling your silken coat? Or is there another lion in the way? Are you afraid of catching vermin? And are you not afraid lest the roaring lion should catch you? Are you not afraid of Him that hath said, “Inasmuch as ye have not done it unto the least of these, ye have not done it unto me?” What will follow? “Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels!” 19. In time past how mindful were you of that word: “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart: Thou shalt in any wise reprove thy brother, and not suffer sin upon him!” You did reprove directly or indirectly, all those that sinned in your sight. And happy consequences quickly followed. How good was a word spoken in season! It was often as an arrow from the hand of a giant. Many a heart was pierced. Many of the stout-hearted, who scorned to hear a sermon, But which of you now has that compassion for the ignorant, and for them that are out of the way? They may wander on for you, and plunge into the lake of fire, without let or hindrance. Gold hath steeled your hearts. You have something else to do. …