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The Law, the law, and...

         We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me. (I Timothy 1:8-11)

I tend to like to tell people, “You are not my parents, my master, or my God.” I want to be independent. Some people might think I’m an antinomian, but they’re wrong. I don’t reject the Law or the law. I reject when others try to use the Law, the law, or their law improperly. This isn’t a political thing. We all tend to try to treat our law as The Law. We all tend to treat others as our children, slaves, or worshippers. At best, they might be our students. We are free to persuade them of the rightness of our way, but not to impose it.

But the point for today is that the purpose of The Law, the law, and our law is not to make people good or moral. The purpose of The Law is to teach us what is good and what is evil. The purpose of the law is to punish those who violate it. The purpose of our law is to force others to comply. This is why some folks seem to think that if their law could be made into the law, there would be no more violence because they would remove the means by which people make violence more effective. It’s why some folks believe that making something illegal will stop it. It’s using (whichever) law improperly. (Abbreviated for the sake of travel.)

 

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