Law of Love

Old Testament for March 3, 2024

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Exodus 20:1-17
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The Ten Commandments are regarded in Western culture as the foundation of Judeo-Christian law and morality. These ten laws aren’t exhaustive. Altogether in the Torah (which is the first five books of the Bible), especially from Exodus to Deuteronomy, there are over 600 laws, commandments and precepts.

These ten laws are essentially relational, prescribing the duties of humans toward God and one another.

God initially declares his claim on Israel. He is Yahweh their God, who has delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt. The covenant between Yahweh and his people is predicated on this history. Before he was their lawgiver he was their Savior and Liberator.

The first four commandments may be described as “vertical.” What I mean is that they address the human relationship with God. First, God commands their absolute allegiance to himself. No other gods. The second is an amplification of the first — no worship of images. The faith of Israel requires strict monotheism and no handmade objects of devotion. God is the maker of all creation. It is not creation that is to be worshipped and adored, but God alone.

God is described in very personal terms here — he is jealous of his worship, and punitive toward those who are disloyal; and he is loving toward those who love him.

Third, they are not to misuse the name of the Lord. This isn’t simply oaths or cursing, but the attempt to manipulate the holy name of God for personal gain, or even purposes of magical incantation. A name in the Hebrew mind contained in it the very nature and identity of the person. So, to misuse the name of the Lord is to affront the very nature of God himself.

Fourth, the Sabbath is to be a day of rest for the people and their creatures, commemorating the culmination of creation on the seventh day when God rests from his acts of creating. Just as God’s name is holy, so is this day to be holy — set apart.

In other words, there are to be boundaries between what is holy and what is not holy.

One God
No rivals
A holy name
A holy day

These commands are to remind them of the God who has delivered them.

The last six commandments govern human relationships. These are the “horizontal” commandments. But the fifth commandment, like the first, is a demand for reverence and loyalty — in this case, honoring one’s parents. As with the second commandment, which promises love to a thousand generations of those who love God, the fifth commandment also promises blessings — in this case long life.

It would seem that every “civilized” society holds these five commandments in common:

Respect for parents
Respect for life
Respect for marriage
Respect for property
Respect for truth telling

The final commandment, though, crosses the line from mere external obedience into internal motivation. Covetousness is that sense of greed or craving or envy that begins to penetrate and to corrupt the heart. It might even be said that the sins of murder, adultery, theft, and even deception begin with covetousness.

Needless to say, these commandments are a cornerstone for a Biblically righteous and harmonious life.

APPLY:

The Christian attitude toward the law is a little complicated. The law performs the very vital function of revealing God’s will and his holy nature. But as Paul illustrates in his Epistles, pure obedience to the law is impossible.

In a sense the unattainable nature of the law is built into it. The tenth commandment — prohibiting covetousness — makes clear that sin is more than mere action. Sin springs from the heart and the will.

Jesus says as much when he says:

You have heard that it was said to the ancient ones, ‘You shall not murder;’ and ‘Whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I tell you, that everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause will be in danger of the judgment; and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ will be in danger of the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of Gehenna (Matthew 5:21-22).

And again he says:

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery;’ but I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. (Matthew 5:27-28).

None of this suggests that the law is abolished or that it can be ignored (see Matthew 5:17-20). It does remind us that the law is like a mirror that shows us what is wrong with us, and then drives us to Christ our Savior, who satisfies the law on our behalf. Only with the help of the Holy Spirit are we empowered to fulfill the outer and inner aspects of the law. As Romans 8:2-4 says:

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh; that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

To paraphrase John Wesley: “what God has done for us, he also does in us.”

Furthermore, the law is summed up by the law of love, in which we are commanded to love God and our neighbor (see Matthew 22:36-39 and Romans 13:8-9). If we love God and our neighbor, it stands to reason we will also fulfill the Ten Commandments — and we will do so through the power of the Holy Spirit.

RESPOND:

The law reminds me of the very holiness of God, and the very personal nature of my relationship with God and with other people. If I love God, I will want to worship him alone, worship no other substitutes, honor his name and set aside a day for worship; and if I love other people, then I will obey all of the “horizontal” commandments as well — from my heart.

As 1 John 5:2-3 says:

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous.

Lord, how I love your law! And yet how I hate it at the same time! I love the guidance and the boundaries that the law provides. And yet I find myself unable, in my own strength, to perfectly keep it. I pray that your Holy Spirit will enable me to keep the perfect law of love, in your strength and not in mine. Amen.

PHOTOS:
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Epistle for September 10, 2023

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Romans 13:8-14
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Paul articulates the same royal law of love (James 2:8) taught by Jesus and later by his brother James. Jesus declares that all the law and the prophets are fulfilled in the commandments to love God and love one’s neighbor (Matthew 22:37-40).

Here, Paul focuses exclusively on the horizontal expression of the law of love that deals with human relationships. Interestingly, he argues that the Christian should be free of any sense of indebtedness except the debt of love:

Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

This is part of a larger discussion of Christian responsibility. Paul insists that the grace-filled life of the Christian means true liberty from legalism — but in contrast, he does acknowledge that freedom must be exercised responsibly. In relation to governing authorities, paying taxes, honor and respect to those in authority, Paul says this:

Therefore you need to be in subjection, not only because of the wrath, but also for conscience’ sake (Romans 13:5).

Thus the Christian, though free, is still to live as a responsible and conscientious citizen of the city or nation in which he or she may find themselves.

Paul’s next discussion of the law of love in relation to the Mosaic law is interesting. We are reminded that he has presented a very nuanced view of the Mosaic law throughout the theological portion of Romans, arguing that the law is holy and just and good but also arguing that the law itself has no power to save us, nor can anyone except Jesus perfectly fulfill the law.

But the Christian who has been saved by grace through faith, and filled with the Spirit of Christ, is also empowered to love. And all of the Mosaic law, including the Ten Commandments are fulfilled in the law of love:

For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other commandments there are, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love doesn’t harm a neighbor. Love therefore is the fulfillment of the law.

It is important to note that this law regarding love of neighbor is an Old Testament law from Leviticus 19:18. Paul has never repudiated the law and the prophets, only their false interpretations. Note also that the four commandments Paul specifically cites from the Decalogue relate to our horizontal relationships with other human beings.

And there is an urgency to his exhortations about how Christians are to live. His view of time is eschatological. One doesn’t know when time will end, so it is imperative to live well:

Do this, knowing the time, that it is already time for you to awaken out of sleep, for salvation is now nearer to us than when we first believed. The night is far gone, and the day is near.

Paul is not engaging in any apocalyptical speculation so rampant today. He is simply stating the obvious — that every day one is closer to the end of the age. And that day is nearer today than it was yesterday. This is a call to wakefulness and awareness, because, as Jesus teaches:

Watch therefore, for you don’t know in what hour your Lord comes… Therefore also be ready, for in an hour that you don’t expect, the Son of Man will come (Matthew 24:42,44).

In light of this awareness, that the day is near, Paul exhorts us:

Let’s therefore throw off the deeds of darkness, and let’s put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day; not in reveling and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and lustful acts, and not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, for its lusts.

His imagery contrasts night and day, with darkness suggesting behavior that is associated with night-time revels (drunkenness and sexual debauchery) as well as interpersonal conflict (strife and jealousy). And light becomes a palpable thing — the armor of light that we are to put on clothes us with protection. Indeed, he extends the metaphor, that we are to put on Christ — like the light, Christ is to envelop us.

And Paul reminds us of a metaphor that prevails throughout Scripture — we are to walk properly, as in the day. The imagery of walking with God, and walking in God’s ways, is scattered throughout the Scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation. And it is readily apparent that walking is far easier in the light than in darkness! We are to:

walk in the light, as he (God) is in the light (1 John 1:7).

We also see the contrast of flesh and spirit, and are reminded of Paul’s earlier declaration:

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace (Romans 8:5-6).

Making provision for the flesh and its lusts leads to death; the Spirit leads to life and peace.

APPLY:

The law of love is at the heart of Christian ethical teaching. The New Testament appropriation of this principle insists that it sums up all the law and the prophets. This doesn’t necessarily mean that Jesus or Paul or James are negating the Old Testament law, but that love is the foundation for obedience to the law.

Do we go to church out of duty, or because we love God? Do we tithe because it is a rule, or because it is a measured means of expressing our love? Do we visit the sick or feed the hungry because we were told to do so, or because we care? The answer is pretty clear — we do these things, and obey the principles of the law not because they are legalisms, but because they offer guidance in loving God and neighbor.

Augustine of Hippo once said:

Once for all, then, a short precept is given you: Love, and do what you will… let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good (Augustine’s Homily 7 on 1 John 4:4-12).

There is an irrefutable logic here:

If you love, you won’t commit adultery, which damages entire families, not just the two people involved.
If you love, you won’t murder — the ultimate unloving act.
If you love, you won’t steal — depriving someone else of the right to their own property is a selfish, unloving thing to do.
If you love, you won’t covet — covetousness is the inner root of dissatisfaction that leads to envy and jealousy and lust and disharmony with others and ourselves.

It is impossible to think of an instance when love fails to fulfill the proper regard between God and ourselves, between ourselves and others, and within our own mind and soul.

The Apostle John sums it up this way:

We love him, because he (God) first loved us (1 John 4:19).

When we love, we become most like God.

RESPOND:

Many years ago when I was in college I had a roommate who had been recently saved. He was zealous in his church attendance and in his witnessing to others. But I remember one time having a conversation with him about the love commandments of Jesus, and the commandments of love that permeate all the Scriptures.

He seemed completely puzzled. This conversation was at least ten years prior to Tina Turner’s troubling song, “What’s love got to do with it?” But that seemed to be his attitude — what’s love got to do with being a Christian?

I was every bit as puzzled by his attitude as he was by mine. Christianity without love is like walking in the total darkness of night. Christianity without love is like living in the world of Fight Club instead of a loving family. Christianity without love makes religion into a set of rules instead of a Spirit-led walk with God guided by the principle of love.

When we forget to love as God has loved us, we forget that we too have been those unlovely and unlovable selfish broken creatures for whom Christ died:

But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

Our Lord, your command to love is inspiring, but impossible without your love living and working in and through us. May we walk in your light and bring others into your light as well. Amen.

 PHOTOS:
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Psalm Reading for February 12, 2023

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 119:1-8
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Psalm 119 is an example of acrostic literature in the Hebrew Bible, which means in this case that each stanza begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Acrostic patterns also occur in four of the five songs of Lamentations, in Proverbs 31, and in Psalms 9, 10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 119, and 145.

What sets Psalm 119 apart is that it is the longest Psalm — and the longest book — in the entire Bible. Psalm 119:1-8, our lectionary text, features the Hebrew letter Aleph, the first letter of the alphabet.

The central theme of Psalm 119 is the supreme value of the law.

The initial word of each of the first two lines sets the tone for the entire Psalm:

Blessed are those whose ways are blameless,
who walk according to Yahweh’s law.
Blessed are those who keep his statutes,
who seek him with their whole heart.

The emphasis is on the practice of the law, not merely the knowledge of the law. The blessed are those who walk according to Yahweh’s law, and who seek him with their whole heart. This law is both external and internal. It is both lifestyle (walking) and attitude (whole heart).

The Psalmist continues to focus on the blamelessness that results from obedience to the law:

Yes, they do nothing wrong.
They walk in his ways.

The expectation, though, is complete obedience, which leads the Psalmist to pray that he might be steadfast to obey God’s statutes. If so, he concludes he wouldn’t be disappointed in his ability to fulfill all God’s commandments.

This suggests a certain level of humility in the Psalmist, perhaps a little anxiety that he won’t measure up. But then he confidently proclaims his gratitude that he has learned of God’s righteous judgments.

And so there is a kind of ‘covenant’ that the Psalmist seems to ask for:

I will observe your statutes.
Don’t utterly forsake me.

The Psalmist’s prayer is that if he seeks to obey the commandments, Yahweh will do his part to sustain him.

APPLY:

The Christian’s attitude toward the law is shaped by the New Testament. Jesus affirms that he has come to fulfill the law — but he also distinguishes between the law revealed by God and the interpretations of the law in the traditions of religious leaders. And the Apostle Paul also affirms the divine origins of the law:

Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good (Romans 7:12).

Paul also speaks of the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2).

And both Jesus and Paul declare that the law is most perfectly fulfilled by love — love for God and love for neighbor.

All of this is a reminder that the law reveals the holy and righteous character of God, but it is also a means of strengthening relationship with God and neighbor.

This is why the second line of Psalm 119 is so important:

Blessed are those who keep his statutes,
who seek him with their whole heart.

Keeping the statutes of God is a means of seeking God with our whole heart. The trick is to remember that the laws and statutes aren’t an end in themselves, they are a means to an end. For example, Jesus tells the Pharisees:

The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27).

Likewise, the law wasn’t given by God to be an oppressive weight, but to be a spiritual and moral guide for human beings.

RESPOND:

A truck driver in one of my Bible study groups used an analogy concerning the law that reflects the attitude that many people seem to have. He pointed out that there are white speed limit signs and yellow speed limit signs on our roads. The white signs are usually speed limits that policemen enforce. The yellow signs, indicating safe speeds for driving on a curve, etc., are “suggestions.”

Many people seem to think of the laws and the commandments of God as the “yellow” signs that are mere suggestions. Underlying the laws and the commandments are the law of love and of the Spirit. If we are truly seeking God, we find ourselves living out his law of love and the law of the Spirit with our whole heart.

Our Lord, your law is holy, just and good. Help me to obey your law not for the sake of my holiness but for the sake of my relationship with you. Amen.

PHOTOS:
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Psalm Reading for October 16, 2022

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 119:97-104
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Psalm 119 is unique. It is one of about a dozen acrostic Psalms in the Hebrew hymnal, each stanza based on a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It begins with Aleph and ends with Tav.

What sets Psalm 119 apart is that it is the longest Psalm in the Psaltery, with 176 verses; and also the longest single book in the Bible! In fact, by itself Psalm 119 is longer than 17 Old Testament books, and 14 New Testament books!

Psalm 119 is devoted almost exclusively to the celebration of Yahweh and his holy law.

Our lectionary reading is only a small part of the total — focusing on the Hebrew letter Mem. But this section lifts up the central theme of Psalm 119:

How I love your law!
It is my meditation all day.

This is the “first principle” of Hebrew faith — that God has revealed himself through the law. Hence, meditation on the law makes one wise, righteous.

In fact, the Psalmist’s focus on the commandments gives him a leg up on his enemies, his teachers and the aged!

Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies,
for your commandments are always with me.
I have more understanding than all my teachers,
for your testimonies are my meditation.
I understand more than the aged,
because I have kept your precepts.

In other words, it would seem that simply studying the laws, statutes and commandments of God has given the Psalmist an unsurpassed advantage in life.

A common Biblical metaphor for the righteous way of life is walking with God (Enoch in Genesis 5:24; Noah in Genesis 6:9; Abram in Genesis 17:1; Israel walking in obedience to God’s law in Exodus 18:20, etc.), and this Psalm alludes to this Godly walk:

I have kept my feet from every evil way,
that I might observe your word.

And yet another frequent metaphor in Scripture is the imagery of the Word of God as honey that is eaten by the reader (cf Psalm 19:10; Ezekiel 3:2-4):

How sweet are your promises to my taste,
more than honey to my mouth!

As the Psalmist ingests these words, they give him wisdom to discern good and evil. And to avoid the evil:

Through your precepts, I get understanding;
therefore I hate every false way.

APPLY:

For the Hebrew believer, the laws and commandments of God were paramount. The law, delivered to Moses on Mount Horeb, forms the foundation of the covenant between God and Israel. The law provides a way of life, of worship, and of righteousness to the Israelites.

For the Christian, the law is more complicated. Paul strongly affirms that the law:

indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good (Romans 7:12).

So, the Christian is never at liberty to denigrate or deny the law of God. However, Paul’s insight is that the law can’t deliver the righteousness that it demands. The perfect standards of the law cannot be attained by sinful men and women, no matter how good we are.

Thus, Jesus has fulfilled the law on our behalf through his sinless life and his atoning, sacrificial death:

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh; that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (Romans 8:2-4).

Are we to meditate on the law, as the Psalmist did? Yes. But we also realize that Jesus fulfills the demands of the law on our behalf; and through the Spirit fulfills the moral and spiritual law through the law of love written on our hearts.

RESPOND:

When I was in seminary I wrote a paper that had a rather pretentious title — “The Dialectic of Law and Grace in John Wesley’s Theology.” Actually, despite its high-falutin’ title, the premise was relatively simple.

John Wesley’s study of the Bible led him to conclude that God’s law is holy and just and good, like Paul said. Wesley believed that the ritual and ceremonial law of sacrifices and diet were types that symbolically pointed to the priesthood and sacrifice of Jesus. In his life, death and resurrection, all of those ritual and dietary laws were fulfilled and were no longer required. Jesus is our sacrifice. Therefore, the sacrifice of animals is no longer required.

However, Wesley said that Jesus never contradicted the moral law that had been revealed in the Old Testament — in fact, Jesus doubled down on the moral law! For example, murder is bad, but anger is the beginning of the murder of a brother; adultery is wrong, but lust is the objectification of a woman and the root of adultery. In other words, the moral law isn’t merely external — it is internal.

Wesley summed it up like this — the law drives us to Christ by showing us, as though in a mirror, that we are loathsome sinners; Christ’s grace forgives us as he fulfills the law on our behalf through his life, death and resurrection; and then Christ drives us back to the law as a helpful guide to growing in grace. What is behind the law is always the law of love which leads us to love God, neighbor, and even our enemy!

So, along with the Psalmist, we can also say:

How I love your law!
It is my meditation all day.

Our Lord, how I love your law! Your law reveals to me what holiness looks like, revealed in your consuming love. It also reveals to me how far short I fall when I try to fulfill the law in my own strength. Thank you for your grace in Christ Jesus that fulfills the law on my behalf, and for your Spirit that writes your law of love on my heart. Only through you am I able to live the life to which your law calls me. Amen.

PHOTOS:
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Gospel for August 21, 2022

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Luke 13:10-17
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This account of a sabbath’s day in a synagogue is inserted amongst seemingly unrelated teachings and healings. However, we also detect a subtle and steady increase in the level of tension between Jesus and the authorities.

The town in which the synagogue is located is unnamed. But we know that Jesus is drawing closer and closer, at least psychologically, to confrontation in Jerusalem:

When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51).

We see the storm clouds of that coming confrontation already gathering here in Luke 13.

Jesus has already established himself early in his ministry as a healer and an exorcist — casting out demons even on the Sabbath (Luke 5:31-37).

Given his previous ministry, it comes as no surprise that a crippled woman should approach Jesus, even on the Sabbath in the synagogue. Luke’s Gospel makes it clear that this affliction that causes her to be bent and unable to straighten up has a demonic source.

It is important to note that she doesn’t ask Jesus to heal her — he is proactive, and takes the initiative when he sees her misery:

When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.

If the story had ended here, we might simply have said that this was another example of Jesus’ healing power and left it at that. But the leader of the synagogue couldn’t leave well enough alone. This person was likely either a lay leader or a professional rabbi who was sympathetic to the concerns of the priests and the scribes who insisted on strict Sabbath observance.

What happens next illustrates the growing tension between Jesus and the priests, scribes, and Pharisees. The leader of the synagogue is indignant toward Jesus, but he scolds the crowd, rather than Jesus for gathering to seek healing on the Sabbath day:

“There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.”

Obviously, he is annoyed at Jesus, but perhaps the religious authorities have begun to figure out that confronting Jesus directly doesn’t work all that well. So this leader of the synagogue does something that Family Systems Theory calls triangling. He takes his wrath out on the crowd instead of on Jesus.

Jesus doesn’t let him get by with that. What Jesus does is called de-triangling. He confronts the leader, and in so doing also addresses the priests, scribes and Pharisees who might be muttering to one another. Jesus says to them:

“You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?”

Jesus isn’t necessarily denying the importance of the Sabbath as a day of worship and rest. He himself observed the Sabbath. However, he is criticizing the preposterous interpretation that would prevent acts of compassion.

It would be illogical and inhumane not to lead an animal to water to drink on the Sabbath day; how much more not to heal this fellow Jew (a daughter of Abraham) who had been in bondage to Satan for 18 years!

Jesus had already addressed their legalistic interpretation of the Sabbath earlier in his ministry, declaring to them that:

The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath (Luke 6:5).

And when he healed a man whose hand was withered he asked the pointed question:

I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?(Luke 6:9).

Mark’s Gospel quotes Jesus’ eloquent perspective on the proper use of the law, which is meant to benefit human beings, not enslave or oppress them:

The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27).

It is clear that Jesus won this round — as he does every round:

When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

APPLY:

We Christians need to get past the false opposition between law and grace. The law is never described in the New Testament as an evil thing. Legalism, which is the effort to attain salvation by one’s own obsessive-compulsive ritual righteousness instead of relying on God’s grace, is the problem.

Salvation is not a human achievement of any kind — through works, the law, or spiritual discipline. Salvation is a gift of God for the sake of Christ.

The law doesn’t save, and the law never trumps love and compassion. However, the moral law, used properly under the auspices of the law of love, can provide moral guidance to the Christian. Jesus observed the law by resting and worshiping on the Sabbath because of his love for his Father.

But when law becomes legalism, and morality becomes moralism, then the law becomes a bludgeon instead of a tool for spiritual growth.

The obsessive-compulsive rigidity of the leader of the synagogue misses the whole point of the law of the Sabbath. A day that is created for rest and renewal becomes instead a day of rigid rules that increase religious anxiety and guilt, and neglects those who are suffering.

Jesus reminds us that the law at its best is for the spiritual growth and benefit of human beings. The law at its best can be an extension of his loving grace rather than a source of oppression.

RESPOND:

This passage makes me think of Victor Hugo’s masterpiece, Les Miserable. Jean Valjean, the protagonist, has been imprisoned because he broke the law — he stole a loaf of bread for his starving family. The law is strict and rigid concerning theft.

After he is released — 19 years later — he is offered hospitality by a kindly bishop who finds him shivering and homeless on the street. Valjean tries to steal the bishop’s silver, but when he is arrested the bishop insists to the authorities that he had given the silverware to Valjean. Valjean goes free, a much richer man because of the grace of the bishop. The bishop tells Valjean that his life has been spared for God’s sake, and he should use the silver to make a better man of himself.

The major complication of the novel is the character of Inspector Javert. As the plot develops, Valjean has become the compassionate, generous mayor of a French city, and a wealthy and just owner of a factory. But Javert becomes suspicious — he begins to remember Valjean from years before when Javert was a prison guard, and learns that Valjean has been accused of another crime.

Javert makes it his life’s mission to obsessively hunt Valjean and arrest him. In a moment of dramatic irony, Javert falls into the hands of revolutionaries, and Valjean contrives to spare his life. But Javert cannot live with the conflict of his rigid devotion to the law and the merciful goodness of his intended victim, Valjean. Because of his intense inner conflict, he finds the contradictions irreconcilable and drowns himself in the Seine River.

That is a rather elaborate illustration of the principle that there is a spiritual law of grace and love that always trumps the rigid law of legalism.

Lord, I love your law — but it is the law of love that I seek to follow. I pray that you will give me a healthy respect and obedience to your law, but always illumined by your love and compassion. Amen.

PHOTOS:
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Gospel for August 29, 2021

Human rules are not the same as God’s commandments.

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
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OBSERVE:

The controversy between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees has already ripened into open hostility. By the time we have arrived at this passage, the Pharisees and scribes are critically examining and ‘picking’ at virtually everything that Jesus does.

Here, they notice a hygienic/ritualistic defect in the disciples:

they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them.

This was shocking to the scribes and Pharisees, for they had developed very detailed rules about the washing of hands, food, dishes, etc. It should be noted that these rules were not from the Torah, the revealed Law that God had given to Moses; instead they were dictated by the Oral Law, passed on by rabbinic traditions over the years. It was common for rabbis to meet with students and to answer questions about the Torah, and offer interpretations about how the Law was to be applied. So, it is the Oral Law that the scribes and Pharisees believe that the disciples are violating.

So they pose the question to Jesus:

“Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”

Jesus is very clear that there is a sharp distinction between the Revealed Law of God and the Oral Law. He quotes from Isaiah that the scribes and Pharisees are “teaching human precepts as doctrines,” and declares to them:

^“You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

Though they pretend to be deeply religious, he accuses them of honoring the Lord with their lips, while their hearts are in fact far from God.

We must be clear that Jesus never criticizes or diminishes the Revealed Law of God. Just the opposite. In fact, in Matthew 5:17-20, Jesus declares:

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

The key difference between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees is that he sees that true righteousness is not a matter of external ritual, or superficial piety. True righteousness is holiness of the heart.

Jesus says to the crowd that had gathered and witnessed this interaction:

“Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”

And Jesus reiterates that what truly matters is not external, ceremonial law, but God’s unchangeable moral law:

For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

True righteousness is a matter of the heart, not the superficialities of ritual practice.

APPLY:

Jesus makes it very clear that he distinguishes between the rules that have been created by human beings and the commandments of God.

As we apply the Scriptures to our lives, we must do the same. The rules and traditions that are developed over time in our churches may have a good purpose, and they may even have some validity for a time; but they are not ever to supersede the law of God.

We tend to get tied up in knots over things that are human traditions — music, clothing, ritual, etc. And we can even begin to think of externals as being more important than the internal meaning of the law.

Jesus never loses sight of the fact that internal holiness is what matters. The mistake that many of us make is to treat holiness as a kind of medicine that we apply externally. The only way it will work is by being taken internally.

RESPOND:

I think many Christians have misunderstood the New Testament attitude toward the law. I think of a pastor I knew years ago who parked his car in a no-parking zone when he went to the hospital, because he said “the children of God are under grace, not under law.” Although he was flouting a civil law, I suspect his attitude toward the laws of the Scripture were similar.

Jesus says quite the contrary about the laws of God. He declares:

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Paul in Romans 7:12 says that the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.

We have been led to believe that the law is a bad thing, and that Christians are free from any law. That is not Biblical teaching. The law has different dimensions.

There was the ceremonial purpose of the law, reflected in the temple sacrifices, feasts, and the dietary laws. These had the purpose of reminding people that they were dependent on God for forgiveness and that they were to be set apart for God’s purposes. Jesus is the final and perfect sacrifice, and therefore fulfills the sacrificial law. The dietary laws were an external sign of the distinct nature of Israel; but as Christians our distinctiveness is found by being filled with the Holy Spirit.

And then there is the moral law. We may argue that the law of love fulfills the moral law completely. When Jesus sums up the law, he answers in two parts:

“The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31).

But it is also very clear that if we are fulfilling the law of love, then we will fulfill the moral law! If we love God, we will have no other god before him, we will honor the Sabbath day by worshiping him, and so on. And if we love our neighbor, we won’t steal or lie. In fact, all the things Jesus mentions in our current passage would be completely contrary to the moral law of love:

fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly.

Our Lord, I have a tendency to turn my religion into a kind of medicine taken externally. My religious customs become a substitute for the real thing. Your grace is a medicine that must be taken internally. You change me from the inside out! Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Pool Rules” by Peter Dutton is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for March 7, 2021

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Exodus 20:1-17
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OBSERVE:

These ten laws are essentially relational, prescribing the duties of humans toward God and one another.

God is described in very personal terms here — he is jealous of his worship, and punitive toward those who are disloyal; and he is loving toward those who love him.

In other words, there are to be boundaries between what is holy and what is not holy.

One God
No rivals
A holy name
A holy day

These commands are to remind them of the God who has delivered them.

It would seem that every “civilized” society holds these five commandments in common:

Respect for parents
Respect for life
Respect for marriage
Respect for property
Respect for truth telling

Needless to say, these commandments are a cornerstone for a Biblically righteous and harmonious life.

APPLY:

Jesus says as much when he says:

You have heard that it was said to the ancient ones, ‘You shall not murder;’ and ‘Whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I tell you, that everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause will be in danger of the judgment; and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ will be in danger of the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of Gehenna (Matthew 5:21-22).

And again he says:

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery;’ but I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. (Matthew 5:27-28).

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh; that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

To paraphrase John Wesley: “what God has done for us, he also does in us.”

RESPOND:

As 1 John 5:2-3 says:

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous.

PHOTOS:
"The Law Is Like a Mirror" uses this photo:
"Do I Know You?" by Tom Waterhouse is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic License.

Epistle for September 6, 2020

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Romans 13:8-14
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OBSERVE:

Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

Therefore you need to be in subjection, not only because of the wrath, but also for conscience’ sake (Romans 13:5).

Thus the Christian, though free, is still to live as a responsible and conscientious citizen of the city or nation in which he or she may find themselves.

For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other commandments there are, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love doesn’t harm a neighbor. Love therefore is the fulfillment of the law.

And there is an urgency to his exhortations about how Christians are to live. His view of time is eschatological. One doesn’t know when time will end, so it is imperative to live well:

Do this, knowing the time, that it is already time for you to awaken out of sleep, for salvation is now nearer to us than when we first believed. The night is far gone, and the day is near.

Watch therefore, for you don’t know in what hour your Lord comes…. Therefore also be ready, for in an hour that you don’t expect, the Son of Man will come (Matthew 24:42,44).

In light of this awareness, that the day is near, Paul exhorts us:

Let’s therefore throw off the deeds of darkness, and let’s put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day; not in reveling and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and lustful acts, and not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, for its lusts.

His imagery contrasts night and day, with darkness suggesting behavior that is associated with night-time revels (drunkeness and sexual debauchery) as well as interpersonal conflict (strife and jealousy). And light becomes a palpable thing — the armor of light that we are to put on clothes us with protection. Indeed, he extends the metaphor, that we are to put on Christ — like the light, Christ is to envelop us.

walk in the light, as he (God) is in the light (1 John 1:7).

We also see the contrast of flesh and spirit, and are reminded of Paul’s earlier declaration:

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace (Romans 8:5-6).

Making provision for the flesh and its lusts leads to death; the Spirit leads to life and peace.

APPLY:

Augustine of Hippo once said:

Once for all, then, a short precept is given you: Love, and do what you will….let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good (Augustine’s Homily 7 on 1 John 4:4-12).

There is an irrefutable logic here:

If you love, you won’t commit adultery, which damages entire families, not just the two people involved.
If you love, you won’t murder — the ultimate unloving act.
If you love, you won’t steal — depriving someone else of the right to their own property is a selfish, unloving thing to do.
If you love, you won’t covet — covetousness is the inner root of dissatisfaction that leads to envy and jealousy and lust and disharmony with others and ourselves.

It is impossible to think of an instance when love fails to fulfill the proper regard between God and ourselves, between ourselves and others, and within our own mind and soul.

The Apostle John sums it up this way:

We love him, because he (God) first loved us (1 John 4:19).

When we love, we become most like God.

RESPOND:

When we forget to love as God has loved us, we forget that we too have been those unlovely and unlovable selfish broken creatures for whom Christ died:

But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

Our Lord, your command to love is inspiring, but impossible without your love living and working in and through us. May we walk in your light and bring others into your light as well. Amen.

 PHOTOS:
"'Put on the Armor of Light' ~ Romans 13:12" by Art4TheGlryOfGod by Sharon is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Psalm Reading for February 16, 2020

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 119:1-8
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OBSERVE:

The central theme of Psalm 119 is the supreme value of the law.

The initial word of each of the first two lines sets the tone for the entire Psalm:

Blessed are those whose ways are blameless,
who walk according to Yahweh’s law.
Blessed are those who keep his statutes,
who seek him with their whole heart.

The Psalmist continues to focus on the blamelessness that results from obedience to the law:

Yes, they do nothing wrong.
They walk in his ways.

And so there is a kind of ‘covenant’ that the Psalmist seems to ask for:

I will observe your statutes.
Don’t utterly forsake me.

The Psalmist’s prayer is that if he seeks to obey the commandments, Yahweh will do his part to sustain him.

APPLY:

Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good (Romans 7:12).

Paul also speaks of the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2).

And both Jesus and Paul declare that the law is most perfectly fulfilled by love — love for God and love for neighbor.

All of this is a reminder that the law reveals the holy and righteous character of God, but it is also a means of strengthening relationship with God and neighbor.

This is why the second line of Psalm 119 is so important:

Blessed are those who keep his statutes,
who seek him with their whole heart.

The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27).

Likewise, the law wasn’t given by God to be an oppressive weight, but to be a spiritual and moral guide for human beings.

RESPOND:

Our Lord, your law is holy, just and good. Help me to obey your law not for the sake of my holiness but for the sake of my relationship with you. Amen.

PHOTOS:
"Psalm 199:1-2" by Martin LaBar is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Psalm Reading for October 20, 2019

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 119:97-104
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OBSERVE:

Psalm 119 is unique. It is one of about a dozen acrostic Psalms in the Hebrew hymnal, each stanza based on a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It begins with Aleph and ends with Tav.

Psalm 119 is devoted almost exclusively to the celebration of Yahweh and his holy law.

Our lectionary reading is only a small part of the total — focusing on the Hebrew letter Mem. But this section lifts up the central theme of Psalm 119:

How I love your law!
It is my meditation all day.

This is the “first principle” of Hebrew faith — that God has revealed himself through the law. Hence, meditation on the law makes one wise, righteous.

In fact, the Psalmist’s focus on the commandments gives him a leg up on his enemies, his teachers and the aged!

Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies,
for your commandments are always with me.
I have more understanding than all my teachers,
for your testimonies are my meditation.
I understand more than the aged,
because I have kept your precepts.

In other words, it would seem that simply studying the laws, statutes and commandments of God has given the Psalmist an unsurpassed advantage in life.

I have kept my feet from every evil way,
that I might observe your word.

And yet another frequent metaphor in Scripture is the imagery of the Word of God as honey that is eaten by the reader (cf Psalm 19:10; Ezekiel 3:2-4):

How sweet are your promises to my taste,
more than honey to my mouth!

As the Psalmist ingests these words, they give him wisdom to discern good and evil. And to avoid the evil:

Through your precepts, I get understanding;
therefore I hate every false way.

APPLY:

For the Christian, the law is more complicated. Paul strongly affirms that the law:

indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good (Romans 7:12).

Thus, Jesus has fulfilled the law on our behalf through his sinless life and his atoning, sacrificial death:

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh; that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (Romans 8:2-4).

RESPOND:

So, along with the Psalmist, we can also say:

How I love your law!
It is my meditation all day.

PHOTOS:
"How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. (Psalm 119:103) #godsword #honeybee #bee #honey #red #redflower" by Jeanette's Ozpix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.