Charles Ellicott Commentary Leviticus 19:18

"Thou shalt not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people; but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am Jehovah." — Leviticus 19:18 (ASV)

You shall not avenge. —As the preceding verse commands us to reprove the offender, this verse forbids us to avenge the wrong even when the rebuke has proven ineffective, thus demanding the greatest sacrifice on the part of the injured person. The administrators of the law during the Second Temple illustrate what is meant by "avenge" with the following example: “When an unhelpful person who is in need applies to you to lend him something, and you reply, ‘I will not lend you even as you would not lend me,’ this is to avenge.” (Compare to Romans 12:19.)

Nor bear any grudge. —The law goes further still. It commands that the injured person is to banish from memory the injury he has suffered, though the offender has made no reparation. The spiritual authorities during the time of Christ regarded the simple reference to the injury when a kindly act is performed to our adversary as a violation of this injunction. They illustrated it with the following example:

When an adversary applies to you to lend him something, and you actually comply with his request, but in so doing you say, “I lend it to you; I will not act as you have acted, for you have refused to lend me,” this is a violation of the command not to bear any grudge.

“He who at the reconciliation with his adversary readily forgives his transgressions, his own trespasses will also be readily forgiven in the day of judgment,” is the often-repeated precept of the sages during the Second Temple.

Again, “He who suffers injuries and does not return injury for injury, he who is reviled and does not revile again, fulfills acts of love and rejoices in suffering; of him it is said, ‘Those that love him are like the sun, which comes forth in its might from all dark clouds beaming with light’” (Judges 5:31).

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. —This sublime precept formed the center around which clustered the ethical systems propounded by some of the most distinguished Jewish teachers during the Second Temple. When Hillel was asked by one who wished to learn the sum and substance of the Divine Law in the shortest possible time, this sage replied by giving a paraphrase of this precept in a negative form: “What you do not wish that others should do to you, that do not do to others; this is the whole Law, the rest is only its interpretation. Now go and learn.” Christ gives it in the positive form (Matthew 7:12; Luke 6:31; Romans 13:8–10).