laws

I saw something at work that seemed to me to be a metaphor of some kind for life. Right under the sign of lunch room rules (number 3 of 7 is “Clean up after yourself”) lay a dirty fork and knife surrounded by a spatter of some kind of red sauce. 

There’s an interesting attitude we have here in America that I haven’t encountered anywhere else I’ve been. We like rules for other people, but we always think we should be the exception to the rule. We want a clean kitchen but we don’t want to wash our own forks. I know I can be like that. But I’ve come to realize that I don’t really understand the role of laws and rules.

I’ve started to think that the law is less about putting constraints on me than it is about showing me what good citizenship looks like. We can’t all do anything we want, or there’d be chaos. So if we want safe streets and good services and a minimum of conflict, how should we all behave? Our rules are meant to describe what good social behavior looks like, so we don’t go around making everyone else’s day worse just so ours can be a little easier.

In Moses’ farewell address to the Israelites, he first reminded them of everything God had done for them, and then he went over again the laws God had given. As he started to do that, he said this, in Deuteronomy 4:1-2, “‘Now, Israel, hear the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.’”

These commands, Moses explained, told the people exactly how to live within God’s blessing. They described the best behavior for a close relationship with God and each other. Nothing more would be needed, but nothing less, either.

I think that’s why Jesus said he didn’t come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. God’s law still shows me how to be a good servant, to God and people. And Jesus showed me exactly what that looks like. Just because the penalty for lawbreaking is gone, that doesn’t mean I don’t need the law to help me see how my own sin contrasts with God’s expectation.

Will I ever love the law? Probably not. But I love the benefits I get when others follow the law. Can I be a big enough person to want to give them the same thing?