“Love your neighbor” doesn’t stand alone in Leviticus 19:18. As Rabbi David Fohrman puts it, Leviticus lays out a “pathway” to love, one that, surprisingly, begins with “hate.”

Hate happens. Even in the most loving families and churches, people offend each other. We get annoyed and angry. The issue is, What do we do when that happens?

Leviticus 19 answers by showing how hatred gives way to love.

Leviticus doesn’t say simply “do not hate,” but specifically “do not hate in your heart.” We violate that command when someone does us wrong and we keep our pain and annoyance inside.

God wants us to act on our annoyance by confronting our neighbor: “Show your cards,” as Fohrman puts it. Don’t bottle it up. Say something.

Jesus teaches exactly the same thing: If your brother sins against you, go to him.

We’re masters at rationalizing our grudges. “I have a right to hate him!” we tell ourselves. We might even pretend our seething grudge is an act of piety: “I’m going to suffer in silence.”

Don’t do that! Don’t let hatred poison and embitter your soul. It’s not good for you or your brother. It’s not pious.

Finally, we get to the famous bit: Love your neighbor as yourself. In context, love means rebuking, not nursing hatred and bitterness, renouncing vengeance. That’s what love is.

So, so many churches, especially in the South, operate at a superficial level of civility. Civility isn’t love. It can even be a cover for hatred in the heart.

Let’s commit to being a genuine loving community – a truth-telling community willing to correct and rebuke one another.