Free to Be Different – The Law of Liberty (10)

Free to Be Different

The Law of Liberty (10)

Readers will gain a better perspective on the main teaching of this series by reading The Ground for Christian Ethics, by T. M. Go to www.MyParuchia.com, click Publications, then click Waxed Tablet, and scroll down until you see this little volume.

“You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my rules and do them… And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you…You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.” Leviticus 20:22, 23, 26

One of the great fears that haunt the followers of Jesus Christ is that others might regard them as odd. This fear is especially strong among young people, toward whom their peers can be vicious and unrelenting. But it affects every believer in some form or another. We fear that, if we stand out as holy unto the Lord, others will look askance at us, and perhaps even mock, scorn, or shun us.

But we do not need to live in such fear. The reason? God takes pleasure in our being a separate and holy people unto Him. When the pleasure of God becomes the driving force in our lives, it won’t matter one way or another how others regard us. Walking in the Law of liberty, as Jesus did, we can know that, like Him, our lives are pleasing to our Father.

The pleasure of God is a strong sensation, as any will report who experience it regularly. In the pleasure of God we feel that nothing can deprive us of our joy. No change of circumstance–be it ever so harsh–can cause us to lose our peace or derail us from our hope. The world may, indeed, buffet and barrage us. But we are not guided in our daily activities by the fear of men.

How can the pleasure of God become such a strong sensation that it overrides and cancels every contrary affection? By walking in God’s Law, delighting in it, and knowing that we are a living sacrifice, acceptable to God and, in the truest sense, a blessing to all who encounter us (Rom. 12:1, 2).

Let us not dance around the fear of men. Rather, let us prepare for it daily by betaking ourselves to the Law and the testimonies of God, being clothed in the righteousness of Jesus (Eph. 4:17-24), and living as salt, light, and leaven to our benighted age. As we daily inhabit the pleasure of God, the hope that pleasure engenders within us will cancel every fear and, increasingly, make us the objects of others’ curiosity (1 Pet. 3:15).

Daily meditation in the Law of God helps us along the path of holiness, righteousness, and goodness (Rom. 7:12). Order your copy of The Law of God, a compilation of the Mosaic Law for contemporary believers, by going to www.MyParuchia.com, point your browser to “Publications,” then click on the drop-down option, “Waxed Tablet Publications.”

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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.