Friday, February 23, 2007

The Purpose of the "Law"

I know I have gotten away from my “Questions Jesus Asked,” I will get back to those in the future. Until then, you’re stuck with my random thoughts.

I am reminded again of how God wants us to treat each other. Throughout the Bible, God continuously points us to learn how to love each other. Now, you may ask, what about the Law. God gave us all these rules we are supposed to follow – that’s how we are a good person, right? Follow all the rules.

I hope this helps – NO! That’s not the purpose of the Law! The reality is we cannot keep all the rules – that was the point. If we could keep the rules we would not need Jesus. Well then, what did Jesus teach us about the Law?

Jesus was asked about the Law and He said this – Love God with everything you are and love others.

That’s it! Jesus said all of the Law and even everything we read about the Prophets are all summed up into those two things – actually, one thing – LOVE. Jesus demonstrated what that looked like when the women caught in the act of adultery was dragged out before Him. The Law said she and her partner should be stoned to death.

Jesus’ response? He said let the person who has never messed up throw the first stone. At least those people were honest enough to drop their stones and walk away.

What we tend to do is want to help everyone else live by the Law – we point out every “wrong” thing (at least in our opinion) they do – we pick up stones and hurl them.

If we really want to enjoy life, we need to learn to love – it starts with loving God and then moves to loving people as we allow God to transform our hearts.

Next time you find yourself standing with a stone in your hand – I hope you’ll drop it and walk away.

\D

2 comments:

Kathy said...

sonIt's funny that your blog is about Love... I was on my way home and read a church sign today that said something along the lines of "everyone can Love", unfortunately everyone doesn't choose to love! Why can't everyone follow Christ example? It seems to me personally that Love should be the easiest thing to do among Christians but I'm personally having much difficulty in loving others. I want to love everyone whether they do things to hurt me or not but as days go by it gets harder and harder. Thanks for the reminder of how Christ set the example for us and we should follow His lead! Love ya Man!

Dave said...

I agree, Kathy! It seems so simple - love God, and love each other. Yet, it's not simple at all. People do some crazy things (I do crazy things) - and loving them is not the first thing that comes to mind.

Thankfully, we share a Savior who is still transforming our hearts to learn to love the unloveable - because, no one is truly unloveable when they've been created in God's image.

Learning to love...