A Judge of the Law? – The Sixth Commandment

A Judge of the Law?

The sixth commandment

Exodus 20.13; Deuteronomy 5.17

“You shall not murder.”

Leviticus 19.17

“You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.”

James 4.11

“Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law”

Do we know better than God?

We all like to think we are exceptions. We’re like Lot, who, warned against going into the city, took exception to the angels’ words and went to a little city. Where he became a little afraid of his new neighbors, and went to live in the little hills above the little city. Where he got a little drunk and had a little illicit sex with his daughters. Just a little thing, as he had explained to the angels. He thought he was an exception, and so do we. God’s Law says don’t murder, don’t hate your neighbor, don’t even allow sin to find safe harbor in your soul. Those words are clear enough. But we think we’re exceptions: I’m just a little angry. I only hate him a little bit. It won’t hurt for me to talk about him a little bit behind his back because, after all, he deserves it. Little sins. Those little sins actually indicate that we think we’re bigger than the Law of God, bigger than God Himself. God’s Law may be OK for most people, but when we judge that we know better than God how to live our lives, we boot Him and His Law out of their proper place in our souls, grab steering wheel of our lives, and drunk with the power of autonomy, head for the hills. That flashing blue light in your rear view mirror means that chastening is just ahead.

Have you ever held on to any “little sins” because you thought you could handle them? Did you? Should you?

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“In the Gates” is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.