Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Legalism

Laws are supposed to exist as the servants of human kind, and not the other way around. When we live by the letter of the law rather than the spirit, we force people to become the servants of the law. Jesus said, “The letter of the law brings death. The spirit of the law brings life.” Basically he was condemning the Pharisees. They were teachers of the law -- that’s what a Pharisee was -- but instead of teaching people how to use the law to free them from bondage and slavery, the Pharisees used the law to enslave, and the people were now under bondage to the law. That is a problem that we all face all through our lives, and as children, as the New Testament makes clear, we need the law, we need rules, we need teachers and parents and pastors and political leaders. All these people help keep order in a disorderly world, but the problem is that the law, which was meant to be a servant to human kind, is always in danger of becoming a despot when it is misused by people who do not understand that the law is not there for law and order. It is there to bring peace and harmony in a troubled world.

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