LEGALISM,AND THE SPIRIT OF THE LAW
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
There are many different ways that the law today, and most of them have nothing to do with the spirit of the law through Christ. The Pharisees were exacting and scrupulous in their attempts to follow their laws. So how could Jesus reasonably call us to a greater righteousness than their?
The weakness of the Pharisees is the same weakness that we have today in most of our churches because we are content to obey a law outwardly without allowing God to change our hearts or attitudes. Jesus was saying therefore that the quality of our goodness should be greater than that of the Pharisees because they looked pious but they were far from the kingdom of God. The more that we buy in to the doctor know divisions that cause us to be separate from one another the more length of her seas we become. We need to be just as concerned about our attitudes that people do not see as we are about our actions that are seen by everyone. It is interesting to me how we still become judgmental of people when we don't have the complete picture of what God is doing in their lives. Jesus was saying that all people who listen to him needed a different kind of righteousness altogether they needed a righteousness of love and obedience, and not just a more intense version of obeying the law.
It's interesting to me just how much God does it with in us that we can't even see until later as the fruit of his spirit is revealed in our lives. Our righteousness comes from what God does in us not what we can do by ourselves. While the book of James tells us that faith without works is dead, we still trying to navigate our relationship with God by doing good works, hoping that somehow those good works will be a tipping point in our relationship with him. The truth is that we cannot enter into the kingdom of God through any kind of righteousness of our own, or any kind of spiritual perfection that we might achieve. We cannot enter into the kingdom of God without the perfection of Jesus Christ covering our sins. In other words we have to be God centered, and not self-centered. Even our love for God has got to be based on reverence for God, and not approval from people. It is time for us to go beyond keeping the law, or keeping the doctrines of the church to living the principles that God has placed behind the law. That is why Jesus spent so much time speaking about the spirit of the law instead of the letter of the law. It is not a matter of taking away from the law, or of adding to the law, but of fulfilling the purpose of the law in our lives. That can only be done through our unity and bonding relationship with Jesus through the power of his Holy Spirit.
It becomes our attitude and our hearts intent on Hawaii we want to obey God's law that is at the center of what Jesus is trying to say to us. We have a situation today where we might accept those whom we worship and praise God with on a Sunday morning, and yet reject those who are equally a part of the church body, but who are not attending our personal worship services. That can become a very dangerous and slippery slope to walk on because Jesus spoke about these relationships that we have with others within various bodies of believers after he addressed the law, and he said in
Matthew 5: 23 through 24 that broken relationships can and do hinder our relationship with God. When we find ourselves having a problem or a grievance with a friend, we should resolve the problem as soon as possible. The reason being if we do not we become hypocrites if we claim to love God with all we hate others. While we may think of these doctrinal disagreements is not being hate toward one another it is still a division in these attitudes toward others reflect our relationship with God 1 John 4:20.
Jesus talked about these relationships in a way of someone being in debt, and unable to pay being thrown into prison until the debt was paid. The fact remains that we are in much the same situation as someone thrown in debtor's prison while we maintain an attitude division between ourselves and our brothers and sisters in Christ. Then division would remain there unless someone came to pay the debt poor a prisoner. There are some cases where the prisoner would probably end up dying there unless that that were paid and it is practical advice to resolve our differences with our enemies before their anger causes more trouble. In our case the more spiritual division we have with others the more it reflects upon our relationship with God. When Jesus spoke about the spirit of the law he also opened the door to the only route that we can take for salvation, which is through his active sacrifice on the cross on our behalf. Without our acceptance of that gift, and without our forgiveness and unity in the body of Christ with others we cannot live in that spirit of the law. That perfect sacrifice from Christ then cannot cover us because of our attitude. We may not get into a disagreement that takes us to court with someone but even small conflicts men more easily if you try to make peace right away. In a broader sense, these verses advises to get things right with our brothers and sisters before we have to stand before God. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
There are many different ways that the law today, and most of them have nothing to do with the spirit of the law through Christ. The Pharisees were exacting and scrupulous in their attempts to follow their laws. So how could Jesus reasonably call us to a greater righteousness than their?
The weakness of the Pharisees is the same weakness that we have today in most of our churches because we are content to obey a law outwardly without allowing God to change our hearts or attitudes. Jesus was saying therefore that the quality of our goodness should be greater than that of the Pharisees because they looked pious but they were far from the kingdom of God. The more that we buy in to the doctor know divisions that cause us to be separate from one another the more length of her seas we become. We need to be just as concerned about our attitudes that people do not see as we are about our actions that are seen by everyone. It is interesting to me how we still become judgmental of people when we don't have the complete picture of what God is doing in their lives. Jesus was saying that all people who listen to him needed a different kind of righteousness altogether they needed a righteousness of love and obedience, and not just a more intense version of obeying the law.
It's interesting to me just how much God does it with in us that we can't even see until later as the fruit of his spirit is revealed in our lives. Our righteousness comes from what God does in us not what we can do by ourselves. While the book of James tells us that faith without works is dead, we still trying to navigate our relationship with God by doing good works, hoping that somehow those good works will be a tipping point in our relationship with him. The truth is that we cannot enter into the kingdom of God through any kind of righteousness of our own, or any kind of spiritual perfection that we might achieve. We cannot enter into the kingdom of God without the perfection of Jesus Christ covering our sins. In other words we have to be God centered, and not self-centered. Even our love for God has got to be based on reverence for God, and not approval from people. It is time for us to go beyond keeping the law, or keeping the doctrines of the church to living the principles that God has placed behind the law. That is why Jesus spent so much time speaking about the spirit of the law instead of the letter of the law. It is not a matter of taking away from the law, or of adding to the law, but of fulfilling the purpose of the law in our lives. That can only be done through our unity and bonding relationship with Jesus through the power of his Holy Spirit.
It becomes our attitude and our hearts intent on Hawaii we want to obey God's law that is at the center of what Jesus is trying to say to us. We have a situation today where we might accept those whom we worship and praise God with on a Sunday morning, and yet reject those who are equally a part of the church body, but who are not attending our personal worship services. That can become a very dangerous and slippery slope to walk on because Jesus spoke about these relationships that we have with others within various bodies of believers after he addressed the law, and he said in
Matthew 5: 23 through 24 that broken relationships can and do hinder our relationship with God. When we find ourselves having a problem or a grievance with a friend, we should resolve the problem as soon as possible. The reason being if we do not we become hypocrites if we claim to love God with all we hate others. While we may think of these doctrinal disagreements is not being hate toward one another it is still a division in these attitudes toward others reflect our relationship with God 1 John 4:20.
Jesus talked about these relationships in a way of someone being in debt, and unable to pay being thrown into prison until the debt was paid. The fact remains that we are in much the same situation as someone thrown in debtor's prison while we maintain an attitude division between ourselves and our brothers and sisters in Christ. Then division would remain there unless someone came to pay the debt poor a prisoner. There are some cases where the prisoner would probably end up dying there unless that that were paid and it is practical advice to resolve our differences with our enemies before their anger causes more trouble. In our case the more spiritual division we have with others the more it reflects upon our relationship with God. When Jesus spoke about the spirit of the law he also opened the door to the only route that we can take for salvation, which is through his active sacrifice on the cross on our behalf. Without our acceptance of that gift, and without our forgiveness and unity in the body of Christ with others we cannot live in that spirit of the law. That perfect sacrifice from Christ then cannot cover us because of our attitude. We may not get into a disagreement that takes us to court with someone but even small conflicts men more easily if you try to make peace right away. In a broader sense, these verses advises to get things right with our brothers and sisters before we have to stand before God. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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