Legal versus Love

This evening, G was trying to explain to J the difference between legal and illegal. G said, "Legal is like this car. It's 'street-legal,' which means that it is OK for you to drive it on the street. Going into WalMart and stealing something is against the law -- it's ill-egal."

S and I aren't sure what a sick bird has to do with the law, but we liked the explanation.

We went to church today in Grayson, at Bagby Memorial UMC. The sermon was based on the following scripture (Luke 10:25-28):

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"

He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."

The sermon was great, and I'm sure I'll come back to some other points in it in upcoming posts, but this evening I was thinking about "ill-egal."

The Old Testament is full of laws and ways in which we should live so that we don't break the laws. Jesus came to tell of us a new way. Love God, love each other, and everything else will be OK.

That sounds simple, doesn't it? I think in life that it is much more complicated than it sounds. I think, also, that we like the comfort of laws. We like having laid out in front of us what is "right" and what is "wrong."

God expects more of us, though. He has granted us freedom from the law. Freedom isn't easy -- it's hard work. Could it be that moving from a legalistic faith to one based on love is to live as a more mature Christian? When our converstions switch from "should" and "shouldn't" to "I love you," we are growing up. We're taking on more responsibility as Christians. And, I think it follows, that as we take on more responsibility, we also increase our own blessings. As we love each other more, we receive the blessings of love, instead of the fruit of a judgmental faith.

So we need to move from "Ill-egal" to "I'll love you." When we do, that sick eagle will be transformed into a real reminder of our freedom.

Image: Remember in this post (link here), where our patio table died an untimely death? We assembled a new one today. I bet you didn't know that when you put a dining table outide, it becomes a dinning table?