A Pause to Ponder God's Word
"Law or Love?"

There have been many times when I have instructed my children to do something and their response was, "Do I have to?" Aren't we much like this to Jesus' instruction. Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek, go the second mile, clothe and feed our enemies, repay evil with good, give our coat and shirt to those who would sue us, seek reconciliation rather than revenge and we say: Do we have to?" (See Jesus' Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5:21-48) Such a response is often stems from misconceptions concerning Jesus, His teachings, and what He does our life.

We prefer Jesus to be a teacher, then we can agree or disagree with what He says. Some would rather make Jesus' imperatives laws, for laws have loop holes and can be manipulated and manipulating. We will turn the other cheek or go the second mile begrudgingly and feel self-righteous because we have done so. Like the young lad who was punched in the face by another boy. After being hit he quietly turned his face exposing his other cheek. Then he firmly said to the boy who hit him, "I have turned the other cheek. If you hit this one you'd better run because I don't have another cheek to turn so I'll clobber you!" Such an action and attitude has missed the point. Jesus wasn't setting up a new set of rules. He wasn't establishing new law. He was revealing how people who have been radically and completely transformed by His grace live. Oswald Chambers stated it well: "People say that Jesus Christ came to teach us to be good. He never did! All the teaching in the world about a man having a pure heart won't make it pure. Our Lord's teaching has no power in it unless I possess His nature."

The key is found in the Beatitudes, which serve as the introduction to this sermon. (5:3-12). In the forth Beatitude Jesus tells us that those who "hunger and thirst for righteousness, will be filled." Christ fills us with His righteousness, His very nature. Those who have been filled with righteousness (5:6), are merciful (5:7), are pure in heart (5:8), are peacemakers (5:9), and are bless-ers of those who persecute them. They act this way not because they agree with Jesus' teachings. They do so because God has written the law of love on their hearts. He has taken the hearts of stone and given hearts alive with His Spirit, His nature, His love. (Ezekiel 11:19-20) Such love liberates living Christ's teaching, from obligatory drudgery of law to delightful fulfillment of love (agape, divine love). The essence of righteousness, of holiness, is this: "To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and your neighbor as yourself."

Jesus teachings reveal how people filled with His righteousness are to live. His righteousness makes us able to live as He has taught us. Therefore beloved, let us draw upon the limitless resources of God's love which has been poured out upon us and live so that Jesus' teachings describes us.

Keep Close To Jesus
Pastor Gerry


A Pause To Ponder God's Word is written and distributed by Gerald Whetstone, Ordained Elder and teacher in the Church of the Nazarene. These devotionals may be transmitted, duplicated, used in part or in entirety without permission for nonprofit purposes only. Responses welcome. To Subscribe Click Here.
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