A Guide to Proper Self-love--Hate and lust are only two of the many forms into which a healthy self-love can degenerate.

The Rule of Law: Government of the Heart (6)

Self-love is appropriate, within the framework of God’s Law.

“You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.” Leviticus 19.18

Hate and lust are only two of the many forms into which a healthy self-love can degenerate. The believer is called to love himself (Matt. 22.34-40). We are made in the image of God and redeemed for His glory. He loves us and commands our neighbors too as well. If we did not love ourselves we would not reflect either the character of God or His purpose for us on earth.

At the same time, self-love can become degraded and corrupt until, at its worst, it manifests in such forms as hate or lust. There are degrees of corruption prior to these, however, and the Law of God provides a valuable hedge against the tendency of our affections drift from pure and holy love and to begin the slide into corruption.

For example, the Law of God guards our hearts against indifference to the needs and wellbeing of our neighbors. We must show concern for the poor and needy, the stranger and sojourner, and those whose wellbeing depends upon our being good stewards of our possessions (cf. Ex. 21.33, 34; 22.5, 6; Deut. 15.7, 8, 11; 22.1-4; 24.17, 18; etc.). It instructs us in the proper ways of showing respect to others (cf. Ex.22.28; Lev. 19.32; Deut. 5.16; etc.). And it counsels us against taking advantage of our neighbor when we might be in a position to do so (e.g., Deut. 24.13-13).

All these are various affections of our hearts, and each suggests an opposite affection to be nurtured or suppressed: compassion rather than indifference, respect rather than neglect or scorn, forbearing rather than taking advantage. The Law does not present a complete catalogue of the various affections of the heart. Instead, it addresses the most potent of them and points to the others in order to suggest ways that we must seek to take to heart all the words of God’s Law. Thus we may learn to love Him and our neighbors from the depths of our souls, from this most important component of our being.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.

A Check on Lust--We must not desire anything but what God desires.

The Rule of Law: Government of the Heart (5)

The Law teaches us to control our fleshly desires.

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” Exodus 20.17

We must not desire anything but what God desires. By learning to fear and love Him, according to the teaching of His Law, we learn the proper way to love our neighbors and to hate that which rebels against or would thwart the purposes, pleasure, and plan of God. But, in spite of being redeemed, our hearts remain prone to deceitfulness and wickedness (Jer. 17.9). In our hearts it is possible to sin against God without that sin ever coming to expression in words or deeds.

This is the sin of covetousness, or, especially with respect to our fleshly desires, the sin of lust.

Lust is simply inordinate desire, typically, directed in a way that would violate the Law of God or the wisdom of the divine order, could the affection of lust be realized in practice. Sinful human beings are apparently rather easily provoked to lust. We may experience covetousness because of the possessions or privileges others enjoy, some place they hold in the eyes of our peers, or even their physical appearance. Lust begins to arise in our hearts as we linger in thought over the advantage, possession, or features of another, so that that thought begins to bring forth desire in our hearts – the desire, or merely the idea of possessing, the contemplated thing.

Lust can thus poison the soul, overriding sound reason, setting aside established values and priorities, and leading to actions contrary to the revealed Word of God. Because of this, we must be ever aware of when lust is beginning to rise within us, and, through confession, repentance, and thanksgiving, be done with it before it takes root and begins to grow to fruition.

We are taking the Law of God to heart when we submit to its counsel concerning what we must and what we must not desire in our hearts. The Law, as Paul noted, can help us to recognize and resist all forms of covetousness (Rom. 7.7).

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.

A Check on Hate--The opposite affection to love is hate. Hate is a valid affection; we must not think that because hate and love are opposing affections that they necessarily cancel one out.

The Rule of Law: Government of the Heart (4)

The Law is designed to bridle our tendency to hate wrongly.

“You shall not hate your brother in your heart…” Leviticus 19.17

The opposite affection to love is hate. Hate is a valid affection; we must not think that because hate and love are opposing affections that they necessarily cancel one out. We must learn to love what God commands us to love and to hate what He commands us to hate. For example, God commands us to hate sin and therefore we must train this affection to that focus, according to the Law’s definition of sin.

Hate is a powerful aversive affection, and it can engender other powerful affections – such as anger, vengefulness, and malice – which, unchecked, can lead to sin. Thus the Law of God speaks directly to the proper use of this powerful affection: We must not hate our neighbors. Whenever, resting the presence of God’s searching Spirit, we sense the presence of hate in our hearts, as indicated by any of its attendant affections, we must examine our hearts to make sure that hate is not improperly focused but is being put to its God-intended use.

The Law not only warns us against hate, it actually structures relationships in order to guide us in how to keep hate in check. Instead of hating a neighbor who has slighted us, we need to talk with him, explaining our upset, seeking clarification and, where necessary, redress (Lev. 19.17, 18). Moreover, we must not allow hate and anger at some injury done to a loved one to lead us to seek revenge unjustly against perpetrators. The cities of refuge in ancient Israel were established to allow for affections to “cool down” while incidents could be investigated and justice pursued in a decent and orderly manner. The various elements of retributive justice, which could include capital punishment, were also intended, not only to increase fear of God, but to inculcate hatred of sin and its consequences.

The Law of God thus reminds us that, as valid as hate is as an affection, it must be made to serve its proper function and not be allowed to override the demands of love for God and neighbors. Whenever we sense the presence of hate in our hearts, we must turn to God’s Law and Word in order to make sure that our hatred is properly ordered and reflects the hate which God Himself sustains against all evil.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.

The Commanding Affections--Jesus explained that the Law of God, and the elaborations and applications of the Law provided in the rest of the Old Testament, are summed up in the twin commands of loving God and neighbor.

The Rule of Law: Government of the Heart (3)

Two affections above all must shape the desires of your hearts.

“And now, O Israel, what does the LORD require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul…” Deuteronomy 10.12

Jesus explained that the Law of God, and the elaborations and applications of the Law provided in the rest of the Old Testament, are summed up in the twin commands of loving God and neighbor. Of these, loving God with all our hearts is the primary affection, for unless we love God we shall not be able to love our neighbors according to what God prescribes in His Word (Matt. 22.34-30).

But how do we nurture love for God? We cannot simply decide to love God and then suddenly love Him. Love for God must grow out of knowledge of Him and experience with Him. Unless we know the Lord and have some experience of His steadfast love and faithfulness, we will not be inclined to love Him.

Thus love for God must begin somewhere else. And that somewhere else is in the fear of God.

This will seem strange, I have no doubt. But if we know God for Who He is – holy, just, almighty, and so forth – and if we know ourselves truly – as rebellious, ungrateful sinners – then we should fear what God can do to such as we. Over and over in the Law, God reminded His people of what He had done to stubborn and rebellious Pharaoh. And He warned them that such discipline would come to all who reject His promises, rebel against His Word, and disobey His commands, which He graciously gave in order to bless them.

The people thus should fear the Lord, and, in their fear, walk in His ways, according to all He commanded them. As they did, they would discover the mercy, grace, and blessings of God, Who gave them such abundance though they were the least of all the peoples of the earth (Deut. 7.6-11). Thus fearing God and obeying Him, they would be blessed by His grace and would, with grateful hearts, come to love Him. Their obedience would thus transition from being based in fear to being based in gratitude and love. They would never cease to fear the Lord – His never-pleasant discipline is always ready to correct His wayward children (Heb. 12.2-11) – but their love for Him would be the commanding affection to direct all their desires and guide them in the way of grateful obedience.

Fear of God and love for Him, therefore, must be the commanding affections of our hearts. We nurture these affections by careful and consistent study of and reflection on the character of God, and by daily, thoughtful experience of His steadfast love and faithfulness.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.

The Rule of Law: Government of the Heart (2)

The Law trains our hearts to desire what we should.

“Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over to possess it, that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear, therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.”

We may say that the primary function of the heart, as the chief component of the soul, is to focus our desires. What we desire defines how we think, what we value, and how we will live. If our desires are as they should be, according to God’s purposes and will, then we can be sure that He will favor us with His blessings and fill our lives with the abundance of Jesus Christ (Jn. 10.10).

But sin perverts the desires of our hearts, turning us away from love for God and neighbor toward a pernicious self-love that is contrary to everything good and just. The fall into sin means that all human beings are naturally inclined to desire the opposite of what God intends, as Paul explains in Romans 3. The Law of God was given as a corrective for our sinful desires, to teach us instead what we ought to desire if we would know full and abundant life.

Essentially, the Law teaches us to desire what God has promised. It uses a variety of terms to keep this before our eyes: that which is “good,” and which, therefore, reflects God’s original intention for men and all creation (cf. Gen. 1.31); “that it may be well” with us, and that we may live “upright” lives (another word harking back to God’s original design for us, cf. Eccl. 7.29). The Law points to the promises God made to Abraham – to bless His people and to make them a blessing to the world (Gen. 12.1-3). These blessings are the sum and substance of what it means truly to live (Lev. 18.1-5); and they are available only to those who, earnestly desiring the promises of God are also willing to pursue the path of holiness which leads to them (Lev. 19.2; 20.26: Deut. 23.14; etc.).

The Law thus instructs us to turn away from our natural, sinful inclinations and desires and to look to God, speaking in His Word, to reveal His precious and very great promises to us; for it is by these promises that we are able to transcend the limits and miseries of our sinful condition and participate in the very purpose and nature of God Himself (2 Pet. 1.4).

By reading and meditating on the Law of God we are encouraged to desire the promised blessings of God as the defining outlook and aspiration of our hearts (cf. Deut. 28.1-14). Obedience to God and His Law begins in our hearts, as we, in the power of God’s Spirit, discipline our affections to resist and reform all desires which are not in line with God’s revealed purposes, pleasure, and plan.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.

There is power in the unity we have in Christ.

Take it to Heart--The heart is the most important component of the soul; from it, Solomon explained, flow all the issues of life (Prov. 4.23).

The Rule of Law: Government of the Heart (1)

Set your heart on the Law of God.

“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.” Deuteronomy 6.6

The heart is the most important component of the soul; from it, Solomon explained, flow all the issues of life (Prov. 4.23). The rule of God’s Law, unto holiness and righteousness and goodness (Rom. 7.12), must begin in the heart. If the Law is not on our hearts, if it is not shaping our affections in the direction of love for God and neighbor, then we will not be inclined to keep the Law and, thus, will forfeit all the benefits outlined in it.

Moses commanded the people of Israel to “Take to heart” all the words of the Law of God (Deut. 32.46). It’s not enough merely to learn the content of the Law, nor even to carry out its commands in our daily lives. This is the way of legalism, which strives to know and practice the letter of the Law but has no regard for its spirit.

Taking the Law of God to our hearts certainly means that we will need to understand its content. And it will also mean that the Law comes out through our words and works as expressions of the inward work of the Spirit, transforming us increasingly into the image of Jesus Christ (1 Jn. 2.1-6; 2 Cor. 3.12-18). But we must take the Law to heart, allowing it to expose and shape our affections, so that we desire what we are learning and carry out the teaching of the Law with hearts full of gratitude, joy, and love.

The place to begin in taking the Law to heart is by resting in the Spirit of God, pleading with Him and listening for Him as He searches the deep recesses of our hearts to reveal the state and need of our affections with respect to the Law and will of God (Ps. 139.23, 24). This is not a one-time experience; rather, we must learn to take refuge in God’s Spirit and wait upon Him, day by day, as He exposes our deepest affections and turns and shapes them to desire the Law of God from the depths of our hearts.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store

We should ask ourselves, Is that my experience?

The facts of the past do, indeed, affect the future of humankind.

We want everything Jesus has to give us.

We do not want people to go to hell.

Are we losing our vision of the unseen realm or just trading it in?