Imagine a person in a small boat plotting a course. Ultimately, their desired destination is across the great ocean, which would involve navigating by charts and the stars, and risking unpredictable weather and currents. They may decide this is too daunting, and decide instead to follow the coastline, staying within reach of the familiar coves should storms arise.
Which course to plot?
We each plot a course for our lives, making choices between felt safety and reaching our destination on the other side.
If we plot a safe course, we can take 'day excursions' which offer a taste of the ocean but never leave the sight of land. In this way we can steer from one familiar harbour to the next and so may gradually, one step at a time, travel some distance.
But the ultimate destination can never be reached except by setting sail across the deep ocean, relying on the charts, a compass and the stars, accepting that this also involves a greater sense of danger.
So, which course do we plot in life? Do we keep to the shallows and the familiar landmarks, assuming that this keeps us safe? Or do we set sail across the great oceans, trusting our charts and risking the storms, and so head for a destination that can never be reached by any other course?
In my experience, it is only by trusting the ‘chart’ that is the Bible, and trusting ourselves into the hands of Jesus to protect us when the inevitable storms come, that we can find the one truly safe haven on the other side.
Sunday 17 November 2013
Sunday 3 November 2013
Doing what is legal, or doing what is good?
We human beings seem naturally inclined to push boundaries, to explore the limits of what is feasible or is allowed. On the one hand this means that we push the limits of our abilities - to prove ourselves stronger, faster, cleverer, or tougher than our peers. It also means that if a speed limit is set at 50, we want to go 55. In fact, if we learn that the police won't pay attention until we break the limit by a certain margin, then we exceed the limit by exactly that margin … or by just a little more! We expect to 'get away with it'.
The Government works full-time to set the rules for society by enacting more and more detailed legislation about every aspect of life. In this way, rather than setting out what is good, just and honest, they set out in ever-increasing detail what is illegal and punishable.
As the law becomes ever more complex and detailed, people employ lawyers to help explore and exploit the limits and loop-holes of what is legal.
But this is not the same as doing what is good or right or ethical!
It is has been said that "the Lord's Prayer has 59 words, the Ten Commandments have 297, the American Declaration of Independence has 300, and the [EU Food Supplements Directive] has 10,038" *
You cannot make people good by telling them what they must not do, for this just leads to legalism - at best merely observing the letter of the law, or more likely exploiting its outer limits.
Jesus asserted that all the law is summarised in these two short sentences, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind', and, 'Love your neighbour as yourself'" (Luke 10v27). Although he knew full well that our hearts are evil, yet, surprisingly, he set down the law as the good for which we are to strive.
What is legal, and what is good, are two different things. So when people justify their behaviour by saying that what they are doing is legal, it seems very unlikely that they are aiming for what is good!
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* Hansard, 20/1/2003, vol. 398, c99
The Government works full-time to set the rules for society by enacting more and more detailed legislation about every aspect of life. In this way, rather than setting out what is good, just and honest, they set out in ever-increasing detail what is illegal and punishable.
As the law becomes ever more complex and detailed, people employ lawyers to help explore and exploit the limits and loop-holes of what is legal.
But this is not the same as doing what is good or right or ethical!
It is has been said that "the Lord's Prayer has 59 words, the Ten Commandments have 297, the American Declaration of Independence has 300, and the [EU Food Supplements Directive] has 10,038" *
You cannot make people good by telling them what they must not do, for this just leads to legalism - at best merely observing the letter of the law, or more likely exploiting its outer limits.
Jesus asserted that all the law is summarised in these two short sentences, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind', and, 'Love your neighbour as yourself'" (Luke 10v27). Although he knew full well that our hearts are evil, yet, surprisingly, he set down the law as the good for which we are to strive.
What is legal, and what is good, are two different things. So when people justify their behaviour by saying that what they are doing is legal, it seems very unlikely that they are aiming for what is good!
-----
* Hansard, 20/1/2003, vol. 398, c99
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