The Law of God and Public Policy: First Things (5)

Christians must live beyond the letter to the spirit of the Law.

“When men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist and the man does not die but takes to his bed, then if the man rises again and walks outdoors with his staff, he who struck him shall be clear, only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall have him thoroughly healed.” Exodus 21.18, 19

The Law of God describes a system of justice which is designed to maintain the balance of neighbor-love within communities and states. In the incident described above, justice is achieved when the wounded party is restored to health, including payment of opportunity costs lost while recuperating. The Law of God instructs people to check their anger and to eschew violence toward their neighbors. When they fail in this, justice requires retribution.

As God’s people today the followers of Christ must labor to understand the concept of justice as this is revealed in God’s Law and the rest of His Word. But they must not be bound merely by the letter or words of the Law. In the age of the Spirit – the Giver of God’s Law (Lk. 11.20; Matt. 12.28; Ex. 31.18; Deut. 9.10) and its Teacher (Ezek. 36.26, 27) and Power (Ezek. 36.26, 27; Phil. 2.13) – believers must discern the spirit of God’s Law so as to bring neighbor-love to rich, even surprising, heights of fulfillment. As believers grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and learn to walk in the Spirit rather than in the flesh (2 Pet. 3.18; Gal. 5.16-23), they will discover applications of the Law of God that exceed the letter of the Law and bring renewing and liberating power for reconciliation and justice into the their daily practice of the faith.

The story of the good Samaritan illustrates this well (Lk. 10.25-37). A man had been beaten. He was wounded and unable to care for himself. Justice demanded that he be restored. But it was not likely that those who had perpetrated violence against him would ever be discovered. Would justice languish and neighbor-love fail? Hardly. Jesus showed how a Samaritan – the least likely of people to care for a wounded Jew – took it upon himself, without need of law or other compulsion, to restore justice on behalf of the wounded man. He did not owe the man anything. The priest and Levite who crossed the road and refused to help the wounded man doubtless considered that this was not their problem; they did not commit the crime, so they owed the man nothing in the way of help. But the Samaritan understood the larger demands of justice and was willing to sacrifice his own convenience and material bounty so that the higher and greater demand of justice and neighbor-love might be fulfilled.

In so doing the Samaritan did not condone any patently sinful practices. He did what was in his power to do, given the circumstances before Him. And Jesus commands His followers to practice obedience to His Law in just this same way (v. 37). The Law demands justice, but it guides us in the practice of mercy, generosity, compassion, and selflessness. We are practicing the spirit of the Law when its words lead us – without condoning anything plainly sinful – to show such neighbor-love to the people around us.

Subscribe to Crosfigell, the devotional newsletter of The Fellowship of Ailbe. Sent to your desktop every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Crosfigell includes a devotional based on the literature of the Celtic Christian period and the Word of God, highlights of other columns at the website, and information about mentoring and online courses available through The Fellowship.