Know the law but live love

Galatians 3:23-29, 4:4-7

           If you were to read a book of American folklore it might include a silly story of a couple who were travelling in their motor home, set it on cruise control and then want aft to have a cup of tea together! More to my point, there is another story of parents who went away for a romantic weekend leaving their teenage son home alone for the first time. They come home and everything looks suspiciously clean only to find the guest bath painted all jet black, toilet, sink, walls, shower door, floor, everything! Clearly something happened while the cats were away. Lastly, and I don't know if this is a peculiarly American phenomena, what happens to a young man or women who head off to a distant college only to return home after a wasted semester filled with booze, drugs and rampant sex. It happens all too frequently.

          Before Jesus became incarnate, the Jewish people were subject to a whole array of rules and laws.  Many observant Jews still subscribe to a host of dietary laws and we'd say they are strictly 'kosher'. But for the ancient Jews, the laws were much more than dietary laws. In many instances they were rules for survival. They lived among warring, hostile peoples and many laws were for the preservation of the community who experienced great outside influences.  We do the same today with our own children. We make rules, laws and curfews so that we can control our children until such time that they are capable of making their own decisions.  Of course you can't just teach the children rules, you have to give them freedoms little by little so that you don't wind up with a child who goes out of control the first chance they get. This is how you wind up with a black bathroom.

            When Jesus became incarnate, he said he did not come to abolish the law, he came to fulfill the law. Once he gave the two great commandments, the original ten were much harder to follow. It required thought and maturity. It still does and being a good Christian is not as simple as following a subscribed set of rules even though some think it is that easy. It's as if humanity was having a bar mitzvah when Jesus came. God was telling us we were coming of age. We had the maturity as humans to now go beyond strict laws and we could now use judgement, compassion and love to make decisions and live.

          As faithful people, we are bound by laws to guide us but not to rule us. Love, compassion, charity and faith all transcend laws, religious and perhaps otherwise as well. I'm not advocating breaking civil law but our history as humans and as Christians are replete with examples of conscientious objectors and people who broke the letter of the law because they answered to a higher authority. Think, the underground railroad for one.

               Know the law but live love  

             

            

Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.