Making Sense of the Law

Read Matthew 22:36-40  

As a geometry teacher, I teach my students formulas for problem-solving in many situations. It’s better, though, and more fun, to teach them the basic theorems and postulates that make up the mathematical world, and also how to think like a mathematician. Then, formulas just make sense, and sometimes they come up with them on their own! 

In Matthew 22:37-40, this is how Jesus taught. From what I have been told about the Pharisees, I know they had a billion little sub-rules that helped them keep the ten commandments. Jesus, however, boiled them down to the two main rules on which the rest of commandments hinge. “If you keep these two commandments at the front of your mind,” he basically said, “then the rest just make sense—and you might even be able to come up with them on your own!” Love God with everything you’ve got, and love your neighbor as yourself. 

If you really love God, of course you won’t worship another god or use His holy name in ways He didn’t mean it to be used. You’ll even obey His order to spend one day out of the week enjoying His creation and worshipping Him! And if you are truly acting out of love for your fellow humans, how could you murder them? Or cheat on your spouse? Or steal, or lie, or behave out of selfish jealousy? When you know God’s laws well, and when you know Him, these things just make sense.

Math isn’t a series of rules that come out of nowhere; it’s a playground with infinite possibilities derived from a set of observed rules! (That may not be as exciting to you as it is to me. That’s fine.) Similarly, though, living life God’s way isn’t about memorizing a bunch of disconnected, illogical rules! Living life God’s way is about using the basic tools and rules He’s given us to create and work in His world to make it look more and more like the Kingdom He created it to be. And the better we know Him, the more the commandments He has given us make sense to that end. “Blessed is the one… whose delight is in the law of the Lord” (Psalm 1:1-2)!

FOR REFLECTION:

• Pray. Ask God to let you see His ways—His laws—and to make them make sense to you. 
• How has God called you into creating and working in this world to make it more like His Kingdom? 

by Isabelle Lundstrom