"The lawless and disobedient"

THE CARE AND FEEDING OF THE CONSCIENCE: 1 Timothy 1:9-10 (part 2)

The Apostle writes to his protege that the design of the law, and therefore we infer God's intention for the law, did not have its first or main reference to those who do right and live according to God's revealed will, i.e., the "just". For whom is it, then?

The Lawless. These are those persons who recognize no authority beyond themselves, a malady of soul which manifests itself with many symptoms. For some, it is the continual questioning of the authenticity, relevance, or applicability of the law as revealed in the word of God. Questions are good, and skepticism to what one is told or taught is a useful tool. But beyond a certain point, honest seeking becomes dishonest obstructionism, an unwillingness to bow the will. A seemingly relatively inert comment such as, "I have my own religion" or the so-common-as-to-be-almost-trite "It doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're sincere" may be symptoms of this disease.

Great evils, like great achievements, start from tiny seeds which take root in the soul. When someone asks, "How can there be such great wrong in God's world?" it is unnecessary to look any farther than the unwillingness to honor God as God by recognizing and submitting to God's will. "The fool says in his heart, there is no God." A Biblical exemplar of lawlessness is Pharaoh, whose "foxhole faith" under fire from the ten plagues is the contrast note to a background of practical atheism where the God of Israel is concerned. The first result is lawlessness. The second result is death for the Egyptians, but freedom for God's chosen people Israel.

The Disobedient. These are those who know perfectly well that God is real and just and that the law of God is valid, but do what they want to do, anyway.

The offense may appear small. While acknowledging it is wrong to steal, someone pads his expense report, fails to disclose a bit of income on her tax return, trims the time on the clock at work, pirates the occasional movie or software. Recognizing that there should be no other "gods" in our hearts ahead of the one true Lord God, one fails to spend time acknowledging that God in prayer and praise and Bible study, neglects worship, and allows the Name or the sabbath to be violated without concern or comment. ("After all, God will always be there. This opportunity won't be ....") The commandments, a framework for our lives, number ten. The ways in which we violate them are nearly endless. Perhaps all the while, professing faith in and love of God.

Every human being falls into one of these categories at times, perhaps often. Rare is the disciple who readily and determinedly faces her or his own transgression honestly, and doggedly seeks to root it out, with the help of the Holy Spirit. Instead, self-justification flows from a happening to a habit, to a hobby, to a habitual way of life. The Biblical definition of a saint is one who, conscious of this trend and the gravitational force of wickedness, overcomes shame and sloth to stand desperately bare in the blinding light of God's holiness, to be embraced in the warmth of God's gracious love, no matter what the cost.


"King of sinners though I be, Jesus shed His blood for me." Lord, the lawless man and the disobedient child both reside in my spirit. Often, they are me and I am they. Forgive me, O God. Teach me to invite you into the remotest parts of my life, and the secret places of my soul. Prompted by your Holy Spirit, let me not stand for any rebellion against you in my life. And let me be alert to -- lovingly -- help to alert for and remove it in others, as you direct. Amen.


Prince Frederick, Maryland (Providence)

"Understanding this ..."

THE LAW IS NOT FOR THE JUST: 1 Timothy 1:9-10

... understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murders, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine ...

Now Paul is coming to the heart of his understanding of the law; and we see here what will become Martin Luther's first purpose of the law, viz., to restrain evildoers. But on a deeper level, we understand that all of us transgress the law at one point or another, in one particular or another. We understand also that, even if we are able to keep up an external appearance of righteousness, we all transgress inwardly in our desires, intentions, and thoughts. By ourselves and under our own power we are all, as Jesus accused the Pharisees of being, "whitewashed tombs". Only God is truly just.

The old theological category of "concupiscence" -- a term not much heard anymore, at least not in the circles I worship in -- is helpful here. Concupiscence is that "tinder of sin" which, like the tinder one gathers to start a campfire and becomes a roaring blaze -- or which can become a massive forest fire from one carelessly tossed match -- still resides even in the redeemed while we are in the flesh. So we, too, even filled by the Holy Spirit, need the guidance of God's law to tame our unruliness and as a check to bring us under submission to the Father, that God may be "all in all".

As the lines from Charles Wesley's hymn have it:

Take away our bent to sinning;
Alpha and Omega be;
end of faith, as its beginning,
set our hearts at liberty.


Lord Jesus, set my heart at liberty this day. Put your law within my heart once more and in a fresh way, so that I can be free to serve you fully and truly. My flesh continues to put itself first. Tame my unruliness but make me wild for Your holiness. Lord, I ask this for Your dear Name's sake. Amen.


Prince Frederick, Maryland (Providence)

"If one uses it lawfully ..."

WHEN LAW GOES WRONG: 1 Timothy 1:8 (part 2)

In the last post, I lifted up the uses of the law, implying also its purpose: a sign of God's holiness to His people, and thus a guide to their own -- and therefore also part of God's providential care for the world.

But what can Paul mean by "if one uses it lawfully" ? How can someone use the law "unlawfully"?

There are at least three ways in which this can happen.

1. The law can be used as a pretext for what is really lawless behavior, as a cover for attitudes, words and actions which are contrary to the intention of God's commands to us.

We see this in the Scripture: the priests and temple officials use the code on perfect sacrifices as a way of extorting money from the people and turning God's house into a "den of thieves"; Herod uses the law on marriage as a cover for his illicit relationship with Herodias and then compounds the error by using the law on hospitality as a pretext for killing John the Baptist; James excoriates a community for using the laws and customs on respect as a pretext for showing partiality and oppressing the needy (Jas 2); Christ rebukes the Church at Thyatira for allowing its fellowship to overwhelm its sense of God's justice (Rv 2). When the law becomes a cover or excuse for sin, we use the law unlawfully.

2. As I wrote in the last post, the purpose of the law is to be a guide for us -- not meaning "suggestions" or "not binding", anymore than the laws of physics and principles of engineering are "not binding" when building a skyscraper or a bridge so that it won't fall down. One expression of God's judgment upon the world's sin is when actions contrary to God's will follow to their natural consequences.

But when we rely on the external code rather than on the grace of God, transforming us from within, we are using the law unlawfully. One of the problems the Church in America faces in the twenty-first century is that it is widely perceived as being harsh and judgmental, at the same time that it is dangerously unserious about many areas of sin which Scripture addresses directly but which are difficult or unfashionable to talk about. The sin of the Pharisees was that of binding heavy burdens for others, while blocking their way to the true riches of the Kingdom. This sin is very much in evidence in the modern Church.

We are not saved by the law; we are saved by grace. And while our holiness will, if we follow Christ aright, take on the shape of the moral law, a people of grace are called to rely humbly on grace, and to be gracious in our dealings with others.

3. The law can also be used as a license for lording it over other people. It is always amazing to me that the Scripture describes Moses, who was God's instrument for bringing the Divine Code to Israel, as the humblest man there ever was. This is a call to us. The conundrum for leaders (especially) in the Church is that there is a certain kind of people who want to tell others what to do -- as Oswald Chambers puts it, who want to "make converts to their opinions"; conversely, there are those who want others to tell them what to do, so that they are spared the difficult work of creative thinking and application and responsible moral agency in the world. A certain codependency then begins to work, which can create a tidy fellowship but does not work God's redemptive work in the world.

The Greek for "lawfully" is nomimos -- its sense is nicely expressed in the Latin Vulgate with the expression legitime utatur. The law is a good gift from God; our call is to use it "legitimately", according to its true purpose, as an aid to the worship of God with full hearts and lives and to holy, life-affirming interactions with one another.


Prince Frederick, Maryland (Providence)

"Now we know that the law is good"

THE LAW IS A GOOD GIFT OF GOD: 1 Timothy 1:8

Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully....

"But aren't we supposed to be under grace, and not under the law?"

I hear this question on occasion. Many Christians have the attitude that the law is "Old Testament" (meaning passe') and grace is "New Testament" (meaning for now), the law being a heavy burden which no one could bear and that has been superceded by the Gospel.

So in particular St. Paul is frequently misread.

It's important to remember always that Paul was a Jew -- even as a believer in Jesus (I might say, especially as a believer) he held his Jewish roots in high esteem. And if you ask any observant Jew, s/he will tell you that the Law of God is a privilege, not a burden, a gift to be embraced with awe.

So the Law is good. In fact, without it, we really cannot understand our need for grace or its effectiveness at all.

Then why do we not continue to offer blood sacrifices at church on Sundays, and avoid cheeseburgers, shrimp cocktail and blended fabrics?

John Calvin, the great French reformer and commentator on Scripture, offered a guide which can help here. He writes that there are three uses of the Law in Scripture. The first of these is the "civil law", which contained those guidelines for Israel as a nation and people at a historical time and place. This contains information like where the cities of refuge were to be, how much a man had to pay to replace his neighbor's sheep that he lost, and so forth. These laws, though part of God's divine guidance for Israel and (later) Judah, are no longer binding on us today.

The second kind or use of the law is the moral law, which has to do with avoiding evil such as dishonoring God, stealing, adultery, murder, etc., and pursuing those goods which are enjoined on us, such as honoring our parents and elders, and engaging in honest business practices. The moral law is binding for all time; however, by grace we have been set free from seeking to earn God's favor through rigid adherence to an external code.

Thus Calvin offers a third classification: the usus in renatus, or "use of the law among the regenerate", those made new in Christ by grace. For the believer, the law is a guideline, not in the sense of nice but elective rules to be adhered to at one's option, but in the sense that our holiness in Christ, when filled with the Spirit, will naturally assume the form of the moral law. The moral law is the shape of a believer's walk.

To make what may be an imprecise illustration: a person I know grew up wearing a body-brace all the time, very rigid and very painful, because of a condition with her spine that she was born with. After many years of enduring the brace and all its physical (and social) limitations, her body had adjusted and grown to the place where she could maintain a correct and healthy posture without the brace. She had to remember to do so, and could not become complacent -- but she no longer required the brace to do it. For humankind, the law is a kind of brace, enabling us though seriously compromised by sin to adapt to the shape of life and holiness that God desires for us. Still, it's an incomplete an difficult process. In Christ by the Holy Spirit, we are enabled to assume the correct "posture" toward God and our fellow human beings so that the brace is merely a reminder, not required. We cannot become complacent, and good posture is still needed. But the guidance brought by the brace, so to speak, has moved from being external to being part of our makeup.

But how does one use the law "lawfully"? That's the next look ....

Lord, I give you thanks for your Law, which is holy, good, and true. Forgive me for denigrating it in my mind, and let my holiness in Christ, enabled by your Spirit, assume the shape of that which you require. As Augustine prayed, "Command what you will, but give what you command." For the Lord Jesus' sake. Amen.


Prince Frederick, Maryland (Providence)