Guard the Law – The Rule of Law: Government of the Conscience (7)

Guard the Law

The Rule of Law: Government of the Conscience (7)

The study and keeping of God’s Law must be a high priority in our souls.

“You shall therefore love the LORD your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always.” Deuteronomy 11:1

All the Law of God interacts with and integrates the priorities of the conscience we have outlined in this section. Thus, learning, doing, and exhorting others in the Law of God—all His commandments, statutes, precepts, and rules—is the final and all-encompassing value and priority which we must establish in our consciences. Nothing must be allowed to draw us away or prevent us from reading, meditating in, studying, practicing, and teaching the Law of God day by day (Ps. 1).

This is the way of the Kingdom of God (Matt. 5:17-19) and of a life that is blameless before God and men (Luke 1:6). This is the way always to have a good conscience before God and men (Acts 24:14-16), which is essential to living in love for God and men (1 Tim. 1:5).

In our day, when the Law of God has come under neglect and even suspicion among the followers of Jesus Christ, we need a greater emphasis on and commitment to its holy and righteous and good teaching (Rom. 7:12). A weak and compromised conscience will not be strong enough to govern unruly passions and affections or to check wayward thoughts and false lines of thinking. Only a strong conscience, reinforced by daily reading and meditation in the Law of God, will serve to strengthen our souls as God intends, so that we may be transformed from the inside-out increasingly into the image of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Bookstore, then Church Issues.

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