Rules and Principles

The law of Moses was a system of rules. Underlying the system of rules were certain principles as Christ said: "[The] first commandment of all [is], Hear, Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thine understanding, and with all thy strength. This is [the] first commandment. And a second like it [is] this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is not another commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:29-31) Elsewhere Christ said: "On these two commandments the whole law and the prophets hang" (Matthew 22:40). Paul himself speaks of love as being the whole law (Romans 13:8-10). John in his first epistle speaks much about loving God and our brother (see for example 1 John 4:21). What this tells us is that just complying with certain rules is not enough; we need to be right inwardly. Love is in the heart, but it expresses itself in word and action.

Israel was placed under the law but failed to keep it (Acts 7:53). God had said: "Oh that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments continually" (Deuteronomy 5:29). In a day to come God will give them a new heart and they will keep his statutes and ordinances (Ezekiel 36:24-27).

The system of rules was given for the age Israel then lived in. What Paul calls the child state (see Galatians 4:1-7). This system is what is called in Scripture "the law of commandments in ordinances" (Ephesians 2:15). The weight of these commandments was more than man could bear (Acts 15:10) and has now been annulled (2 Corinthians 3:7). What we should pursue now are principles such as Paul says: "Righteousness, faith, love, peace" (2 Timothy 2:22). These are things we are to follow and there are others we are to flee from, such as "youthful lusts" (2 Timothy 2:22). There are plenty of other passages in the New Testament listing moral features that are to mark the Christian. Such are described as the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22/23. If we are marked by these features we shall actually fulfil the righteous requirement of the law (Romans 8:4). In practice this means we shall not do the things prohibited in the ten commandments, nor for that matter shall we do the immoral things proscribed in the detailed regulations.

To illustrate what has been said above one would point to the road signs of today, particularly the speed limits. The object of the speed limits is to ensure that cars do not go at such a speed as would endanger life and limb; that of the driver, any passengers and other road users. In a built up area the limit is usually 30 mph. However, this may be too fast if one is going through a shopping area where people are spilling all over the road. On the other hand the speed limit may be unduly restrictive between the hours of midnight and 4 am. It would be better if drivers could just be allowed to exercise their judgement as to what speed they should go with perhaps some indications to allow for those who may fail to judge what speed is appropriate in the road and traffic conditions they are encountering. However, there have to be regulations in place to deal with those who would act unreasonably, as Paul says: "Law has not its application to a righteous person, but to [the] lawless and insubordinate..." (1 Timothy 1:8-11). However, if we try to make the regulations cover every eventuality we will soon get into difficulties. Do we for instance make a speed limit more restrictive in busy periods, but less restrictive in the early hours of the morning ? Do we then make an exception to the latter less restrictive speed limit for New Years morning when there may be a lot of people about ? We can go on like this almost ad infinitum. The Taxes Acts have become complicated by the need to make exceptions to cover hard cases and also to catch people who try to circumvent the rules. This is pretty much the mess the Jews got into. On the one hand the Pharisees had added to the law to cover all eventualities (their traditional teaching - Matthew 15:1-20) and made rules that Christ showed were absurd (Matthew 23). On the other hand they behaved in a way which was quite contrary to the spirit of the law while doing what they thought was in accord with the letter of it (Luke 13:10-17). Doing what the law required in an outward way