A Law for Life – The Sixth Commandment

A Law for Life

Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17

“You shall not murder.”

Leviticus 19:18

“You shall not bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.”

The Law is definitely “pro-life.”

Once we come to the settled conviction that the Law of God is designed to teach us the ways of full and abundant life, submitting to it and living by it will be much easier. Many Christians are suspicious of the Law. They think it’s a chain to enslave us, a substitute for salvation by grace through faith. Even ministers aren’t free of these misconceptions, and find it easier just to ignore the Law than teach it for the covenant of life God intends it to be. As we’ve seen all this week, the Law of God wants to check sin in our hearts, before it flourishes and bears the bitter fruit of hatred, murder, or other form of evil. The Law of God is “pro-life” in every sense of the word. We ignore it or disobey it to our peril. What’s your program for meditating day by day in the Law of God (Ps. 1), hiding it in your heart so that you do not sin against the Lord (Ps. 119.9-11)?

Pray

Help me to love Your Law, O Lord. Show me how I can begin to learn it and live by it more consistently, day by day.

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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.

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