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The law of love

In heaven, doing what God wants will be second nature. Till then, reflection on God’s law is an indispensable part of discerning what it means in practice to love God and to love our neighbour.

By: David McIlroy, Cambridge Papers
Posted:
Friday, 25 July 2008, 21:39 (MYT)
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Moreover, in the Old Testament God is recorded as giving reasons why meat with blood in it should not be eaten. The blood represents the life of the animal. It is also blood which is used to make atonement for sins (Leviticus 17:11). In not eating the blood, God’s people both recognised the value of the life of the animal and also their need for God’s forgiveness.

However, when Paul was dealing with similar subjects in his letters to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians chapters 8–10) and the Romans (Romans chapter 14), he does not mention the decision in Acts 15. Does that mean that we can eat black pudding with impunity? That particular question may be difficult to answer, but reflecting on the broader principle might give us some food for thought with regards to our attitude towards meat in general. Don’t we eat too much meat today? Do we think hard enough about just how many animals have been killed to provide us with the quantities of meat we eat in the West, or about how much of the planet’s agricultural land was used to rear those animals when it could have been producing other food in greater quantities? Don’t we have too little concern about the conditions in which the animals which we eat were reared and slaughtered? Do we really value their lives in a way that is honouring to God?

The role of the Holy Spirit in Christian obedience

Christians have been given the Holy Spirit to help them internalise God’s law and to guide them as they reflect upon it. The Spirit transforms our understanding of God’s law. The Christian understanding is that God is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, united in love for one another, and reaching out in love to the world which God has made.

Although Judaism and Islam can take God’s law seriously, and might even be able to think in terms of obedience to God’s law as an expression of love for God, neither of these non-Trinitarian religions can offer either the assurance of God’s forgiveness or the promise of God’s personal, empowering presence, equipping us to live more godly lives.

Because they do not know God to be Trinity, these religions are bound to have difficulty in understanding law other than in authoritarian terms, whereas Christians, knowing God to be love, can understand God’s law as an expression of that love, offering us God’s wise guidance for our lives together.

At the Last Supper, Jesus explained the relationship between loving him, obeying his laws, and experiencing the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. He said: ‘If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth…[H]e lives with you and will be in you’ (John 14:15–17).

Copyright: Jubilee Centre www.jubilee-centre.org.

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