A Thought For The Week Of May 26

"For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" (Galatians 5:14) I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about the relationship between law and grace, and about what it means to be under grace rather than under law. In a lot of ways it seems as though living under law would be easier - at least there'd be a set of rules and regulations (a check-list of sorts) that would guide us. We could tick off the things we've done or the things we've failed to do, add them up and see if the laws we've kept outnumbers the laws we've broken - and if they do, we'd feel good about ourselves (in spite of the fact that a lawbreaker is a lawbreaker); and if they don't, well, at least we'd have lots of incentive to do better, knowing that punishment awaits. But grace intervenes and makes the check-list a moot point. Grace sets us free from the details of the law, and grace allows us to live by the spirit of the law. What was the law intended to show us or teach us becomes the operative point. And both Jesus and Paul sum it up - the law is intended to move us to live in love. Jesus says that we're to love God and our neighbour. Paul is even more succinct in Galatians - "love your neighbour as yourself." So perhaps loving our neighbour is a sign that we love God. Maybe that's what God asks of us - to love our neighbours. Not to judge them. Not to threaten them. Not to condemn them. Just to love them. Could it be that simple? It's not really simple of course. The love being talked about here is hard, and it demands a sacrifice from us, but still - we can understand it. Live in love as best we can and we've kept the law as God wants us to. And because we can only do it as best we can and not perfectly - we have God's grace showered upon us. Good news indeed. Have a great week!