The Letter of The Law

We have all been taught to obey the laws. When we are very young, we are taught the importance of obeying our parent's laws. As we get older, we are taught to obey their laws and those that are taught to us at church or school. By the time we reach adulthood, we have learned a set of laws to help us navigate almost every aspect of life. The importance of learning the law was not for the law's sake. It was to keep us out of harm's way or teach us to respect or honor a certain person or thing. The thing about laws that puzzles me is how few we are taught that teach us to respect or honor God.

You are no doubt already thinking of a way to challenge what I just said. A prime example is the ten commandments. I know we were all taught the ten commandments. I know you think you were taught them to honor God, but that's not true if you really think about it. We learned the 10 commandments and acknowledge them as laws given by God. However, we do not learn them or live by them with the purpose being to honor Him.

Take for example "Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." We know it. We quote it. And then we live by it when it is convenient. We understand that the letter of the law commands us to show honor to our parents. But the spirit of the law seeks that we honor God.

Another example is "Thou shalt not kill." This is a law that we confound by letter and spirit. We believe that taking a life is wrong until we have a personal situation that we feel requires an exception. We consider every possible scenario except will disobeying this law bring dishonor to God?

The letter of the law requires that we keep the law according to what is written without regard to the spirit in which the law was given. I challenge each one of us to go beyond the letter of the law. We must get to the point where we obey the laws to bring honor to God. Doing so brings us in line with what He intended.


The Letter of the Law
The strict and exact force of the language used in a statute, as distinguished from the spirit, general purpose, and policy of the statute.

Isaiah 29:13
The Lord says:

“These people come near to me with their mouth
    and honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
    is based on merely human rules they have been taught.

Adayinthelife :-)