The Use of the Civil Laws

The Use of the Civil Laws

A Kingdom Catechism

Seek the spirit, not the letter, of the civil laws.

Q 15:    How are the civil laws useful?

A 15:    The civil laws provide precepts, principles, cases, and examples to guide us in applying the Ten Commandments to our lives in community. (Ruth 4; 1 Cor. 5, 6, 9)

The statutes, precepts, rules, testimonies, and so forth provided in the Law of God apply to every one of the Ten Commandments except the last. They are meant to delineate and outline ways of applying the Commandments in the daily practice of love for God and neighbor. They embody the spirit of the Law in the letter of the Law, the former being the more important aspect, and that alone which has enduring value.

The civil laws, in the form in which they were given to ancient Israel were, as previously mentioned, wholly appropriate for and in line with contemporary practice. This does not mean that the literal application of those laws should determine how they are applied in our day. As Paul demonstrates, in the era of grace and the Spirit we must look beyond the letter of the civil law to discern the spirit in which it should be applied and obeyed (2 Cor. 3:6). The letter can guide us, and may still be applicable in many situations. However, the spirit of the civil laws is the most important aspect for our purposes in practicing love for God and neighbor in our day.

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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.

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