“And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”” Luke 10:25-26 ESV
Reflection: why are laws so important to God?
The US government is in a bit of a crisis mode these days. Funding has been passed by congress to various agencies; however these agencies have clearly used the funds for activities that they were not intended or authorized for. Some just wasteful, some possibly illegal, against what the people stand for. How could this happen? Well, we all know that most laws need to be interpreted in order to be applied as intended. And this is why within the US, case law, or precedence, is so important. What has already been established as
how to interpret the intent of law.
With a smart lawyer, a law can be twisted in a thousand ways. And what was given in good faith to the government agencies, has clearly been misused, by twisting or misinterpreting (intentionally?) the intent of the law. We will no doubt learn more over the coming months.
We often forget that laws and the legal framework come from God. It is all through the scriptures. From the very beginning of creation, God established everything by laws, how things were to function. We see the separation of day and night; water and dry land, etc. We see clear laws in the garden; what man was to do and not to do. And later, God had to give Moses more detailed laws, commandments, as man had lost his way. The laws were not new, they were given as a reminder.
In the focus verses today, we see a very interesting exchange between Jesus and, …drumroll, a lawyer. And the man asks Jesus the fundamental question that pretty much every human being asks – how to “inherit” eternal life. Now, at least he is saying inherit as opposed to earn, as he is recognizing that it has to be given by God. I want you to carefully see Jesus response to him here. He has two questions for him
“What is written in the Law?
How do you read it?”
What we see clearly here from Jesus, is that how we interpret the law is absolutely critical. And since the lawyer is trying to play an intellectual game with Jesus, our Lord gives him the parable of the Good Samaritan, in Luke 10:25-37. We see through this parable that we need to seek the heart of God, to interpret the intent of God’s laws.
Of course the laws, the rules and customs of the Bible, and all of God’s creation, can be twisted as we often are witness to. Even so-called churches twist God’s good intentions for mankind and preach their own ways from the pulpit. But God’s laws, rules and customs are good, for our benefit. To have a functioning family, society, and country. To help us navigate this broken world, to lead us to eternal life. Therefore Jesus asked the lawyer
How do you read it?
So how do you and I interpret God’s law, God’s Word when we read it? Trying to make it fit the desires of our own flesh? Or, to seek the heart, the intent of God?