The law
What is asked of us is that we faithfully use and develop the gifts and talents we are given. We are not measured by the same standard as everyone else; our success is assessed on the basis of the tools which were at our disposal.
This sounds very postmodern, I'm sure, and very Western and individualistic. But is it not also biblical, yea, even "Jesus-esque"? He, and Paul after Him, go on about the Law which was both necessary to give and necessary to abolish, because while morality is helpful to provide a guide, it so quickly becomes rigid and arbitrary, killing those upright and holy characteristics which its regulations attempt to encourage.
Jesus said He came as the fulfillment of the law. He came to bring life again, so we could put the law behind us, and govern ourselves by a living example instead of codified rules which do not account for extenuating circumstances.
This is not to say that morality is bad per se. The entire Old Testament was lived under a strict moral code and Jesus did not come to do away with morality but to provide the motivation for those morals. The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind. And the second is like it: love your neighbour as yourself. On these two hang all the Law and all the Prophets.
It's much easier for me to verbalize these ideas than to live by them. Thank you to the ladies in my care group and to Brennan Manning's Ruthless Trust for the impetus behind this thread.
This sounds very postmodern, I'm sure, and very Western and individualistic. But is it not also biblical, yea, even "Jesus-esque"? He, and Paul after Him, go on about the Law which was both necessary to give and necessary to abolish, because while morality is helpful to provide a guide, it so quickly becomes rigid and arbitrary, killing those upright and holy characteristics which its regulations attempt to encourage.
Jesus said He came as the fulfillment of the law. He came to bring life again, so we could put the law behind us, and govern ourselves by a living example instead of codified rules which do not account for extenuating circumstances.
This is not to say that morality is bad per se. The entire Old Testament was lived under a strict moral code and Jesus did not come to do away with morality but to provide the motivation for those morals. The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind. And the second is like it: love your neighbour as yourself. On these two hang all the Law and all the Prophets.
It's much easier for me to verbalize these ideas than to live by them. Thank you to the ladies in my care group and to Brennan Manning's Ruthless Trust for the impetus behind this thread.
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