“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” Matthew 22.23

Ask any person you meet: “Would you like to see more justice and mercy and faithfulness in our society?” What do you think he would say?

But then if you ask, “Would you like to see more of a prominent place given to the Law of God in American life, culture, and society”? He will shrink back in horror and loudly declaim against such an idea.

And that’s just among those who call themselves followers of Christ!

The Law has gotten a lot of bad press. Secularists rage against it as binding and outdated, tyrannizing our freedom, setting us up for a return to stoning and slavery and whatnot, and an unacceptable intrusion into public life of what should be a matter of private morality only.

Horrors!

Christian preachers tell their congregations that Christ has set us free from the Law. So we don’t need to worry about understanding all those difficult passages and how they might apply in our day.

Even though Paul, James, John, and the Lord Jesus did precisely that.

Just because the atmosphere reeks with bad interpretations of the Law of God does mean we should not seek out the fresh and revitalizing air of true understanding. C. S. Lewis wrote, “The right defence against false sentiments is to inculcate just sentiments” (The Abolition of Man).

The same is true when it comes to understanding the Law of God. Accept that the reason we are so willfully ignorant of God’s Law today is that someone has told us something less than the truth about the Law, and you have a starting-point for beginning to seek out a proper understanding of what Jesus held forth as the key to true love and Kingdom greatness.

T. M. Moore

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