Honor
God’s Law Meditation Commentary
“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the
prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you,
Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from
the law, till all be fulfilled.” —Matthew 5:17-18
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and
is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto
all good works.”—II Timothy 3:16-17
We
hear a lot about living under grace and not under the law, because of a lot of
Paul’s discussions about this topic in New Testament letters he wrote. The truth is
that we are to live by the spirit of the law, and not the letter of the law,
because God’s design is not bound by
the law—it supersedes it, and the laws He gives show us the parameters that He
has set in place for us to live according to His design. Paul explains this in Galatians. “Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added
because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was
made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.” (Galatians
3:19) God gave His law to show His
people exactly how He wanted them to live, but the focus was supposed to be on
His ultimate design, which was encapsulated in the law.
A mentor of mine explained it this way once:
the law was intended as a safety net to catch those who were sliding farther
back away from God, as a warning that they were stepping out of the boundaries
of His design, but their focus was still supposed to be focused on Him,
reaching and striving to know Him deeper.
The Pharisees messed up by turning their focus away from the God they
were supposed to be developing a relationship with, and began focusing on the
safety net as the standard which they were striving to attain to, not realizing
that Jesus was the goal, and the law was there to keep them from straying too
far from Him. Honoring God’s law means
more than following the law to the letter—it means respecting it in its
original purpose and design. To honor
God’s law means to recognize the spirit behind what was commanded, and to
respect and follow it because we understand that God’s design is best and we
want to glorify Him by living the way He wants us to live.
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