Loving the Law

“’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’” (Matthew 22: 37-39).

People become lawyers for many different reasons.   I was first exposed to the study of contract and tort law as a claims adjuster after college and became hooked on the law. I enjoyed studying legal concepts and applying them to real life situations to solve problems and to help people. The cases I read in law school were even more interesting than most of the stories I read as an English major in college. As our children have heard me say many times over the years, I love the law. Loving the law is the subject of this week’s Scripture texts.[1]

Leviticus is known as the book of laws. The book contains hundreds of regulations relating to the everyday and temple life of the Israelites. The laws were inspired by God and written down by Moses out of God’s great love for his people—to instruct and to protect his people. But the book of Leviticus also foreshadows Christ. The sacrifices recounted in Leviticus were based on the concept that “it is blood that makes atonement for one’s life” (Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22). The vitality of a life is in the blood. At the heart of Leviticus is a verse that would be echoed by the one who shed his blood for us centuries later: “Love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:18b).

The psalms also extol the virtues of the law. The psalmist says that the blessed man delights “in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water . . . Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.” (Psalm 1: 2, 4). The blessed study the law—the Word of God, life-giving and sustaining water–but the wicked lead faithless lives, drifting without direction, and are blown about like weightless chaff. In this context, the psalmist shows us that God’s law is life-giving and sustaining, not repressive. Its purpose is to help us and to protect us.

The Pharisees had classified over 600 laws and were proud of their knowledge of them. “One of them, an expert in the law, tested him [Jesus] with this question: ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus replied, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’” (Matthew 22: 35-40). In four simple declarative sentences, Jesus cleared out the dead vines and explained that there are really only two laws: love God and love others as yourself. If you obey these two laws, you will obey the rest, because all laws depend on love of God and love of others. Jesus brought them back to the main thing, which had gotten lost in the plethora of regulations.

This year is the 500^th year anniversary of the Reformation, started by Martin Luther–a man who abandoned his law studies to become a monk. Luther was called a wild boar in God’s vineyard. But his goal was to clean out the dead vines to restore the vineyard to producing good fruit, not to destroy the vineyard.

From a faith perspective, you only need to remember two laws, which will result in your obedience of most other laws, will comfort you, and inject meaning into your life: love God and love others as yourself. Paul understood the importance of expressing our love for others in tangible ways, and assured the church at Thessalonica of his love: “Because we love you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our lives as well . . . For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God” (1 Thessalonians 2: 8, 11,12). Luther explained it this way in a Christmas message to his congregation: “You have Christ in your neighbor. You ought to serve him, for what you do to your neighbor in need you do to the Lord himself.”[2]

Love God and love others as yourself.  Easy.  Now don’t you also love the law?

Diane Cieslikowski Reagan

[1] The Scripture texts for the Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost are Leviticus 19: 1-2, 15-18; Psalm 1; 1 Thessalonians 2: 1-13; Matthew 22: 34-46.

[2] Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand (1950) Abingdon Press, p. 366