The Law of Love

Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!

Most often this is mis-applied to say that the Old Testament was Law and the New is Grace, but that is NOT what Paul was saying.

Before we were saved we were under (the penalty of the) Law, and now receive the reward of Grace.

So, is God’s Grace set against His Law? Is Salvation by Grace then without Law?

Matthew 5:17–18 ESV

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

Romans 6:13–15 ESV

One might say that was Christ, but what of Christians?

Galatians 6:1–5 ESV

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.

What then is the Law of Christ?

James 2:10 ESV

For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.

Does James mean that same law as written in the Old Testament?

So, keep them all!

Deuteronomy 6:1–5 ESV

“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 his 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. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

What to keep and what not?

Hebrews 8:13 ESV

In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Pick what we want - this makes us as gods, like Adam and Eve wanting the knowledge of good and evil - hypocrisy

Assume our disgust or displeasure is necessarily Divine - same as #1. The decision point is still us, we just blame God for it

Moral / Ceremonial distinction - this gets most answers right, but is hollow for apologetic (this delineation is absent in scripture), also you have to stretch the definition of ceremonial to cover things like regulations on fabric and crop rotation

Discerning those things that were for national Israel specifically, Example, Deuteronomy chapter 18:

Example, Deuteronomy chapter 18.

In verses 1-8, God gives instructions concerning the Levitical Priesthood - a thing that was NEVER imposed on any nation other than Old Testament Israel. God never condemned Gentile nations for the lack or impurity of the priesthood as He did Israel.

In these verses, God gives instructions concerning the Levitical Priesthood - a thing that was NEVER imposed on any nation other than Old Testament Israel. God never condemned Gentile nations for the lack or impurity of the priesthood as He did Israel.

In verses 9-14, we find prohibitions on divinations, mediums, attempted communication with the dead. It is clearly stated that God is driving out Pagan Gentiles from their land (many of whom will die in the process) because they are guilty of these things.

In verses 15-21, we find a prophecy of Jesus, the coming Messiah. It is said that He would come from among the Jews specifically, (although in this text there are the seeds and in others the plain truth that Messiah was not only coming to benefit the Jews,) and also a test by which prophets can be judged which points back to the God of Israel only

Deuteronomy 18:1–8 ESV

“The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the Lord’s food offerings as their inheritance. They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them. And this shall be the priests’ due from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. The firstfruits of your grain, of your wine and of your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for all time. “And if a Levite comes from any of your towns out of all Israel, where he lives—and he may come when he desires—to the place that the Lord will choose, and ministers in the name of the Lord his God, like all his fellow Levites who stand to minister there before the Lord, then he may have equal portions to eat, besides what he receives from the sale of his patrimony.

Deuteronomy 18:9–14 ESV

“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.

Deuteronomy 18:15–21 ESV

“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’—

This is I think the clearest and most Biblically-based method of reading the Law. It is but a part of a larger hermeneutic, but if held and applied consistently, there is no room for the previously accused hypocrisy.

For a clear, comprehensive, and balanced summary of Christian sexual ethic, read 18

Isaiah 1:11–13 ESV

“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.

Isaiah 1:

So, keep them all!

Deuteronomy 6:1–5 ESV

deut 6:1-56

Laws concerning sacrifice and priesthood should lead us to doxology; praising Christ!

Hebrews 9:11–12 ESV

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

Laws concerning worship

Leviticus 10:1–3 ESV

Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’ ” And Aaron held his peace.

lev 10:1-3

1 Corinthians 11:29–30 ESV

For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.

1 Cor 11:

Laws concerning clothing

Leviticus 10:19 ESV

And Aaron said to Moses, “Behold, today they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord, and yet such things as these have happened to me! If I had eaten the sin offering today, would the Lord have approved?”

1 Timothy 2:9–10 ESV

likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works.

1tim 2:9

Love is both the motivation and the means

Motivation

1 John 4:10 ESV

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Luke 7:47 ESV

Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”

Our Love toward God is reciprocal; it is response, having been loved by God, especially in the sending of Jesus, believers love God.

Romans 5:5 ESV

and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 13:35 ESV

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

2 Corinthians 5:14 ESV

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;

2 Corinthians 5:13–14 ESV

For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;

The love that believers have and are to have toward one another and others is a direct result of God’s operation on our hearts, turning them outward to love as God loves.

Means

John 14:15 ESV

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Matthew 11:29–30 ESV

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

If Jesus commands us to keep the law of God in its entirety, how is this a light load? How is this anything but damnation, since we can’t?

Note the repetition of ‘all your’

Mark 9:24 ESV

Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

John 9:25 ESV

He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

In the harvest field now ripened There’s a work for all to do; Hark! the voice of God is calling, To the harvest calling you. Refrain: Little is much when God is in it! Labor not for wealth or fame; There’s a crown, and you can win it, If you go in Jesus’ name.

Galatians 6:1 ESV

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

Galatians 6:2 ESV

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Believers are commanded to keep the law. It is not optional, but take heart; it is Christ who has kept it for you and will keep it through you. Love God supremely. Love people genuinely, and thus fulfill the Law of Christ.

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