This will show your wisdom and understanding. (Deut. 4:6)
OUR LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD’S LAW
CHRISTIANS TEND TO HAVE a complicated relationship with God’s law.
We know that the law is good and just, because it comes from God. The Old Testament psalms are packed with wonderful words about the wisdom and righteousness of God’s law (see Ps. 119). In the New Testament, both Jesus and Paul expressed the ongoing importance of the law for the Christian (see Rom. 3:31).
At the same time, we know that the New Testament teaches that we cannot attain justification or righteousness through the law. Worse yet, the law is powerless to remedy our sin; it merely reveals our sin (see Rom. 3:20). We learn from Paul that those who embrace Christ and His kingdom are no longer under the law (see Matt. 5:19; Rom. 6:14).
How is the Christian supposed to reconcile these two seemingly contradictory attitudes toward the law?
The key is to be found in the way Jesus summarized the requirements of God’s law. The person who loves God with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength and loves her neighbor as herself satisfies all of the requirements of the law (Matt. 22:37–40). And later Paul taught that in the power of the Holy Spirit we are able to do just that (see Rom. 13:8–10).
Follow God’s law—love God and your neighbor—and wisdom and understanding (Deut. 4:6) will be made known to all in your workplace, neighborhood, and community.
Let God pour His love into your heart, so that it overflows into others’ lives.
Kevin Scott is a member of the pastoral staff at Stephen Ministries, where he serves as a writer, teacher, and leader and is the author of ReCreatable.
