The law is good if one uses it properly

“We know that the law is good if one uses it properly.” (1 Timothy 1:8)

 

The law has existed always with the history of human life. Every organization in society has laws and norms, both large and small. Families, schools, organizations, companies, and countries have each rules, articles of association, constitution, and etc. Even an individual goes on living in one’s own rules of living. And there are two forms of law; a written law and an unwritten law. With the development of society and the complexity of life, the provisions of law have been further subdivided and its contents have increased. It would be good if decreases in quantity of laws, but it is a tragic situation as the number of laws and accordingly the lawful problems are rather increasing as time goes by. The church of Christ would solidly have to stand and be maintained only in accordance with the Bible law.

 

When the apostle Paul’s going to Macedonia, Paul urged Timothy to stay there in Ephesus. At that time in Ephesus, false doctrines were spreading in the church. Heretical thoughts of Jewish traditions such as myths and genealogies, and ideas of Gnostic arguments had made disturb the church of Ephesus. We need to take lessons from every tradition and history, but shouldn’t worship the traditional things or stand them as a condition for the justice of one’s faith. Christ’s church and the faith should not think much of church history and tradition or appearance and scale, nor stress on personal experiences based on mystical emotions too. Hoping that God’s providence will be wholly fulfilled, the man of faith who follows Christ must have humble attitude and sincere life only according to the teachings of the Bible.

Showing only a love of pure heart, good conscience, and sincere faith has to be the best goal of life that Christians aim for. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” in Matthew 5:8. There are some people who say they want to see God around us. They usually would like to see any images of God who looks figured like a man through dreams during sleeping or fantasies at praying. But from now, throw away such useless delusions far away. God, who is the spiritual Being, will be plainly seen in spirit to a man with pure and clean heart in Jesus. That’s when it becomes possible to practice real love of God. Also, what is a good conscience? The ‘conscience’ expressed here means ‘a natural and frank heart’. The linguistic expression ‘good’ is written inside the word, but human conscience can be actually guided by the Holy Spirit and also influenced by Satan the evil spirit. In the end, this Bible text says that we should be persons of conscience guiding by the Holy Spirit. Only then it can love be practiced. Know also that there is a false belief in faith, that is, insincere belief. If somebody humanly accepts Christ’s lessons, it’s a wrong, insincere belief. If we accept a lesson as Christ wants, the practice of love can come true. Anyway, our ultimate goal in life is the execution of love. Because Christ had sacrificed Himself on the cross for love toward man.

It is the duty of Christians to receive and implement the word of God, law of Church. But some people are fond of hearing vain teachings against Bible, and do to follow them. As a result, the world becomes more and more chaotic because of the appearances of false teachers, as if a blind person were leading same fellow. Just as a wrong lighthouse that cannot do its job confuses the direction of ships sailing in the sea, the world is bound to get louder and louder because the church cannot act rightly as a lighthouse in the world due to wrong teachings of false leaders. If they don’t believe what their own said for oneself and don’t know what the meaning of it, it is a teaching of no value.

It is written in the Bible text that the law is a good thing if it is used ‘legally’. The word said ‘legally’ means ‘suitably to the person who needs it without addition and subtraction’. Who is one needs God’s law, and how would do actually apply God’s law in order to apply ‘suitably’ ‘without addition and subtraction’, these are important matters. As the Bible is a book of spiritual revelation, because it is never easy for each with various spirituality to understand the Bible correctly.

 

The purpose of God’s law is to make man gain salvation in the love of Christ. Therefore, God’s law is necessary for anybody. Hear the voice of the Lord, who calls “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me.” And it is not a desirable attitude of faith to reduce or add to God’s lessons with one’s own thoughts. The man of Christ must not follow the worldly life, but only would have to follow wholly the teachings of the gospel in the Holy Spirit.

 

(Written by Koonoh, Pastor of JDO Presbyterian Church in Korea, on July 10th 2022)