Attitudes Toward the Law – Law Matters: The Law and the Scriptures (4)

Attitudes Toward the Law

Law Matters: The Law and the Scriptures (4)

We must nurture positive and expectant attitudes toward the Law of God.

If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination. Proverbs 28:9

Neglect, indifference, or despite: these are not attitudes toward the Law of God that are likely to bring us into the favor of the Lord. Indeed, Solomon warns that avoiding the Law of God puts us in a category that should expect to fall under the judgment of the Lord.

Given the importance of God’s Law as a roadmap of life and the cornerstone of divine revelation, we should nurture and sustain attitudes that reflect the high value God’s Law should have in our lives. It should be our goal to be able to cry out with the psalmist, “Oh, how I love your law!” (Ps. 119:97)

The Psalms are especially rich with suggestions concerning the kinds of attitudes we should harbor respecting the Law of God. The psalmists call us to delight in God’s Law (1:2); to trust it as our shelter against the lies of unbelief (Ps. 12); to rejoice in the Law of God (19:8); and to seek it eagerly as our guide to life (25:4, 5; 86:11). Psalm 119 alone presents a rich tapestry of affections toward the Law of God against which we might compare our own: diligence (v. 4), resolve (v. 8), delight (vv. 14, 16, etc.), longing (v. 20), satisfaction (v. 39), trust (v. 42), love (vv. 47, 48), comfort (v. 52), hastening (v. 60), and more.

Are these the kinds of attitudes toward God’s Law which we find consistently in our own hearts? Can we say with Jeremiah that the Law of God is the “joy and rejoicing” of our hearts (Jer. 15:16). Do we, like Job, count feeding on God’s Law—and all His Word—as more important than the food our bodies need each day (Job 23:12)?

Gaining the benefit of God’s Law as the roadmap for a full and abundant life and the cornerstone of divine revelation begins in the heart. Unless we hide the Law of God in our heart, and all the rest of God’s Word on top of the Law, we shall never realize the fullness of what God has for us in Jesus Christ.

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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.