Free to Love – The Law of Liberty (7)

Free to Love

The Law of Liberty (7)

This is part 7 of a 49-part series of In the Gates on The Law of Liberty. 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.

“And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:39

I know what I don’t like in people more clearly than I know what I do like. I don’t like people who talk about themselves all the time, or try to dominate every conversation with how clever or important their views are. I don’t like people who are mean or snide to others, who ignore the people around them, or who tell me one thing and so another.

No, I really don’t like such people. However, I do love them. And I do so because (a) I want others to love me, and (b) God commands me to love them. It’s not all that easy, mind you; I’m still working on it with some folks.

The good thing is, I don’t have to guess about what loving even the unlovable should look like. It’s all right there in the Law of God. I’m free of ignorance concerning the requirements of love, free of excuses for not loving others, and free of my own sinful tendencies to want to make such people pay, rather than make them loved.

This is what the Law of liberty can do for us–liberate us from love for ourselves and guide us into the paths of selfless love for others. Do you suppose that’s what Jesus was doing when He submitted to the Law of God in total obedience?

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.