In the Gates – Interpreting the Law of God (15)

In the Gates

Interpreting the Law of God (15)

Interpreting God’s Law is a collegial responsibility, not an individual privilege.

Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there. And behold, the redeemer, of whom Boaz had spoken, came by. So Boaz said, “Turn aside, friend; sit down here.” And he turned aside and sat down. And he took ten men of the elders of the city and said, “Sit down here.” So they sat down. Ruth 4:1, 2

The Apostle Peter reminds us that no interpretation of any of Scripture is a matter of private privilege (2 Pet. 1:20). Just as the Apostles took counsel together, with the elders of the churches, to discern the Lord’s teaching in His Word concerning the inclusion of Gentiles into the Church (Acts 15), so we must always seek the input, advice, and counsel of qualified interpreters to help us in understanding the Law of God. Once we have learned to apply the general principles of interpretation to our task, we may then join the community of faith—present and past—in seeking to gain the benefit of God’s Law for today.

Boaz assembled ten of the elders of the city of Bethlehem to rule on his case. He presented his situation and what he believed it meant for him, but he waited for the elders to deliberate and consider whether Boaz’ plan of action could be supported by the Law of God. Those elders, we may assume, were well versed in the Law of God and the traditions of those who had gone before them in Bethlehem as interpreters of that Law.

When we want to understand the Law, it’s a good thing to look to the entire history of interpretation, beginning with the prophets in the Old Testament, the Lord Jesus and the Apostles in the New, and the saints from various ages who have exercised the wisdom of God in this matter. As we have seen, while the meaning of the Law remains the same as when first given, the application of the Law can differ, because we live in an age when the Spirit of God is more widely available to soften the hard hearts of sinful men.

We want to discover what we might call “lines of interpretation,” signposts and benchmarks concerning specific statutes and applications which the believing community has discerned and practiced over the years. This may sound like a daunting task, but in every generation of the followers of Christ, resources to allow us to compare our interpretations with previous generations, and to draw on the wisdom of our contemporaries, have always been available. That is truer today than it has ever been.

Thus, we are without excuse if we fail to consult the “elders” of the Church to help us in understanding how we should apply the Law of love for particular situations in our own day. Interpretation is always a collegial responsibility and never merely an individual privilege.

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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.