Law or Love?

Mark 7:1-23

Transcript

Let's pray. Father, may your will be done, Jesus. May your word be proclaimed and spirit, may your work be accomplished. In us we pray. Amen.
The gospel lesson today. Law or love? That's the question that I believe that this gospel lesson is going to answer for us today. Does God require law, or does he require love from us? Is God more concerned about the religion or our relationship?
Does God treat us as slaves or sons? Both seem to be required. Both are spoken of in the scriptures. But how are we to apply each? Which one should be first in importance?
Is it a both and situation, or an either or situation? It is my hope that as we learn these answers by the end of our lesson today. We need to begin by better understanding what it is that these characters, the Pharisees, are approaching Jesus with. These characters. The Pharisees represent the law.
A high standard of the law. In fact, when Jesus is teaching on the sermon on the mound. He says, your righteousness has to supersede that of the Pharisees. He's not downplaying the righteousness of the Pharisees. He's saying, it has to exceed that, pointing to his righteousness.
So what is it about the Pharisees that all of us consider them to be legalistic? What is it about the Pharisees that have given them a bad rap? And I think to kind of understand where they coming from. Is going to help frame this conversation about law and love. That Jesus is addressing in our gospel lesson today.
The office of Pharisee began as a response to the babylonian exile. The Jews were dispersed. They were conquered. They were overcome by the Babylonians. They were exiled.
They no longer had their land that God had given to them. And why? Because the Lord says, if you depart from my word. And you depart from me. And you chase after false gods.
I will no longer. You will no longer be my people. I will give you over to yourselves. And so the babylonian exile became this chastisement of sorts. That the nation of Israel accepted for themselves.
This is what naturally happens when you go after false gods. This is naturally what happens when you give yourself over to somebody else's word. And don't abide by mine. That's the lesson you enter into a long period of exile. Coming out of the exile, the pharisees were the educated ones.
They were the scribes. They were the ones that could read and write the law. They were very well versed in the law. And what they made a point to do is to say to Israel. We do not want to go back into exile ever again.
And if going into exile was contingent upon being obedient to the law, well, guess what? We are going to be a people that is going to be obedient to the law, and we are going to do it even exceedingly so. And so they began not only to address the law of Moses, but they also carried on an oral tradition that has been passed down. This is also referred to in the Jewish community as the Mishnah. This is an oral tradition being passed down that isn't a part of the mosaic law.
These are traditions of Men, men's precepts, jesus calls them, that are been added to the command of Goddesse. I liken it to this. My grandfather was a pastor in the church of Christ. Very conservative, very small, backwoods church of Christ. And they did not believe in playing cards.
And as I grow into my understanding about various types of denominations and what they believe, what I often find is that a lot of times churches can become very pharisaical in their interpreting of scripture. Meaning, I believe once upon a time, a great, great, great Pat Paul Emmett, was a one who frequented the saloons, was drinking whiskey, and he was playing cards. And he was womanizing with the women there in the saloon. And then great, great, great grandpa Emmett gets saved. And he teaches his family that, I cannot go back there.
There is nothing good in a saloon. Playing cards was not good for me. I ended up drinking and womanizing all at the same time. So as far as me and my family, we're not going to play cards anymore, because that's something he does. And that gets passed down generationally.
That becomes an oral tradition for that family. That later on gets manifested into a religion that later generations don't fully understand. What comes before. Now, I'm not trying to oversimplify what some people often believe, but there's nothing wrong with playing cards. But for great, great, great, great grandpa Emmett, there was something wrong with playing cards for him that he imposed upon his family.
And this is what the Mishnah is to the jewish people. An oral tradition that's being passed down. They were gathered together for every court hearing and proceeding. Or anything that the leaders, the judges of the nation of Israel, would make known to the people. They would say, okay, that's really wise in this situation.
So let's add that to the law. So the Pharisees were the ones that paraded themselves around trying to abide by the law. But this, they got wrong. Their intentions were right and good. Who wants to be in exile?
Who wants to be away from God? We've learned our lessons, so let's not reenact that lesson ever again. Their intentions were good, but their execution was misguided. And it was misguided because what really was the issue was not only did they not listen and abide by God's word, but I would argue profoundly and first importance that they broke covenant, a covenant relationship with God. It wasn't necessarily the actions that led them astray.
It was their hearts that were far from God. And so Jesus speaks this in our gospel lesson today. They calls them hypocrites and says, you honor me with your lips. You honor me in a lifestyle, but your hearts are far from me. And something that the Pharisees didn't do well is stir the heart towards love.
Rather, they stirred the life towards law. And they thought that's what maintains relationships. But the problem with that is law doesn't make relationships. It doesn't conjure the love from your children to you. When you're just law abiding, you don't fall deeply in love with somebody who constantly tells you what you can and cannot do.
That just produces obedience or disobedience. That does not produce relationship. I liken it to this. The first year I played peewee football, a fourth grader, I was a very timid kid. I often tell you stories from my childhood, and my dad thought it was a great thing for me to get courage by signing me up for football.
Problem is, he didn't know I didn't like to roll around on the grass, and so I was kind of a little bit of a coward. And when I got hit, I'd be like, ugh. I'd get hit, I'd fall on the ground, and I wouldn't like it. So what does my dad do? Like a good father would do to any one of his sons.
He would find every pad, an elbow pad, a forearm pad, shin guards, whatever it took, so that I would feel comfortable with getting hit and hitting the ground. Problem was, I showed up completely decked out like a middle linebacker. I looked ferocious. I was already bigger than any of the kids because I was actually on the fifth and 6th grade football team. Being a fourth grader, that's how big I was.
And so I was decked out in pads. And so it was our first padded practice, and I'm decked out. I look ferocious. But inside, I'm the scaredest cat in the world. And our coach, using me because I'm the biggest kid out there, decides to teach the team about one of the greatest games that you can ever have in practice, bull in the ring.
Oh, it's glorious. So the team gathers around in the circle, and there's a bull in the ring. And he would call, and he would assign numbers to the circle of the players. And when he called your number, you had to run and hit as hard as you can the bull in the ring. And if you can knock him down or out, then you get to replace him.
And then people start running up against you. And it was a challenge of who could be the toughest, right? And so to demonstrate how this works and operates, he calls me. He says, okay, bruce is the bull in the ring. And I'm sitting there decked out in full paths.
I mean, you cannot see my skin. And so I am decked out. I am like a. I mean, you might as well just wrap me up in bubble wrap. I'm good to go.
But my coach is a senior high school student, and so what he does is he doesn't hold back. A grown man to me doesn't hold back. And he goes, this is how you do it. He runs full bore at me, and I'm just going, oh, man, I'm going to die. And he knocks me out up into the air.
And I still remember to this day, my dad was driving a maroon ram Dodge ram charger. And I saw him in midair. I looked over my shoulder, and I saw him driving up. I was up there long enough to see the facial expression on his face. That's how long I was in the air.
And I hit the ground, and I lost my breath. But something happened immediately. At that point, I was hit so hard that it changed my heart about being hit. It changed the way I felt about being on the ground. And the next day, it wasn't the paths that made me ferocious.
It was I. Now, something happened to me that I can now hit and can receive a hit. And a lot of times, that's what the Pharisees like to do. A lot of times, that's what we like to do, is we cover things and situations in the life with padding, when really the true essence is the heart. The padding can't make one courageous.
The padding can't really change the way they feel about the ground. Their heart has to change. And that's the lesson, is that law doesn't make relationships. Law does something else, but it doesn't stir one's heart. And this is the point that Jesus is making in our gospel lesson today.
Is it law or is it more about love? And this is the reply that Jesus offers the Pharisees, because the Pharisees are all about. Why are your disciples not honoring the traditions of men? Why are they being unclean? Why are they defiling the food they're eating to themselves?
And Jesus takes the conversation, and he turns it on his head and says, you guys think you're so clean, but your heart is far from me. And in this reply, we learn exactly what it is that Jesus finds to be of first importance. Love. He says this in Mark, chapter seven, verses six and eight. And he said to them, this is his reply.
Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites. As it is written, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain do they worship me. Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. That right there demonstrates what Jesus believes is of utter importance.
Of first importance. It is not all these things that you are trying to do and get others to do that establish a relationship with God. It is the heart. Because if you can capture the heart, the obedience naturally comes. You don't put the obedience first because it will never give you the heart you're desiring.
But if you put love first, you will find that there's actually no such thing as law. There's only liberty. And that liberty looks like obedience to the law. And that's what Jesus point is. We can observe this in the amazing creatures known as teenage boys.
Right? You think of a teenage boy, you think about how he doesn't. He kind of smells from time to time. He's not really good at his hygiene quite yet, right? He's kind of Henri with his hygiene, right?
He eats everything and kind of eats like an animal. He's unkept in a lot of ways. But it's funny how the moment that pretty girl walks into his life, how you find his comb is perfectly. How his hair is perfectly combed. All of a sudden, he's tucking in his shirt.
He's looking better dressed. What's that I smell of, Zach? Cologne? Did you brush your teeth? When did you start doing that?
All of a sudden, you begin to see something drastically happen. All the things you've been telling and screaming at your teenage boy to do because it's better for him and he's been lazy about it, all of a sudden finds himself doing it because he's in love. He used to eat like there was no such thing as, like, food is going out of style, right? And now he can hardly eat because he has butterflies in his stomach, because he's madly in love. With this girl, right?
We can observe that naturally. And that is a lesson for us to remind us that it is love and it is the heart that first must be captured in order to produce the things that God desires for us to live out in obedience. This is what Jesus says elsewhere in the scriptures. Matthew 22 37, 39. Jesus is summarizing the law.
You know the law. Do not murder, do not lie. Worship the Lord your God. Right? Do not covet all the do's, all the don'ts.
I honor your father and mother, all that. He summarizes it here, and he says, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest. This is the great and foremost commandment. And the second is, like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
So how can the law produce love? It can't. But yet Jesus is summarizing that law. To say you have to love God with your whole being. How does that make sense?
Is it law or is it love? Jesus, the thing about the law is you can have obedient children, but that doesn't mean you have their hearts. You could be a perfect, good, obedient spouse, but it doesn't mean you're giving your heart to them. You can rule them. Parents can often rule their children with fear.
If you don't listen to me and do what I say, you're going to get in trouble. But that doesn't always stir. I would say it never stirs your child's heart towards loving you, which, if you have your child's heart, then they will want to do what you say because they love you. This morning, typically on a Sunday morning, just to share with you. I didn't even think about this.
This is coming to me now. But Melissa, often, because I'm pouring over the word, I'm getting ready for worship and all these things. She feeds our little sourdough starter. She tends to bow. She makes breakfast for everybody.
She allows me the opportunity to do what I need to do as pastor. And this morning I woke up early enough. And because I'm so appreciative of my wife and how she loves me, I fed the starter this morning. I got beau up and dressed. I fed the dog.
I did all those things because, not because she asked me to, it's because I get to do those things for her, to demonstrate to her that I love you. And you do this for me, and I'm going to sacrifice for you. That was based out of love, not out of law. But what is the law good for, I mean, if there's this dichotomy between law and love, then what's the law for then why the law, God? Well, this is what is referred to as the three uses of the law.
Romans 320 says this, because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. That's God's sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. The purpose of the law is to reveal that you can't keep it. Why did God give the law is to first and foremost show that the people cannot keep it.
To reveal the sin, the defilement that comes from within. Because if you're not aware that your heart is defiled, and then you're not aware that the actions that come from your heart are also defiled, and it is a loving and kind thing to be shown that you're not capable of keeping the law, that there is a heart problem and there is a solution that comes later. It's the gospel that God gives out of his loving kindness in order because he wants a relationship with you. He provides for the problem. But you have to know there's a problem.
And so the use of the law is only good for revelation of sin. How is it that we come to know that we've violated some kind of, or offended somebody? It's because there's this standard, there's this rule that we weren't able to keep, and it offers offense and it's sinful. The second use of the law is the fact that it kind of teaches and keeps us. This is what Galatians 324 is all about.
It says, therefore, the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified not by works but by faith in him. The second use of the law is that it acts as a schoolmaster. It acts as a, as a nanny of sorts to keep you restrained from ruining your life until such the time as you have been given the faith to believe in Jesus, that the father draws you to Christ by his loving kindness, he leads you to repentance by his loving kindness. The law is useful for that. The law is useful for you to realize that we can't keep it.
It's also useful in our relationships with one another. This is how we can be civil in society and with others. It gives us a standard like this is how you should treat other people. That's what the law is good for. It regulates us.
Not only does the law reveal sin and the law regulates us, but the law also restricts. It's useful for this in one Timothy 1810 says, but we know that the law is good if anyone uses it lawfully. That's the clue. Realizing the fact that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebels, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for immoral men, for homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching. The law restricts evil in the world.
This is why our leaders should impose laws. This is why our governments should be, should propagate law, because that's how evil is restrained. So the law is good for the fact that it reveals our sin, the fact that it helps us regulate our life until the point that we receive Christ. And then it also is useful to restrict evil in the world. That's what we're told the law is good for, and that's what the law is given.
But does any of that promote relationship? Does any of that incorporate love whatsoever? No, it doesn't. There's nothing about the law that can transform the heart. There's no aspect about the law that leads to salvation.
None of that is salvific. All of that is burying you under the law, holding you down, bringing you to death. To show you that you can't keep this. You're as good as dead. You need a new heart.
So what is that? If that's the way and the use of the law, what about the way and the use of love? Well, this is what Jesus responds to in mark, chapter seven, that the heart is sinful. Mark 721 23. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murderers, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, and all as well as deceit and sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness.
All these evil things proceed from within and defile the mandev. Our disobedience is a result of our heart, and there's no amount of padding we can put on that to make us. You cannot force somebody or abuse somebody into being legalistic and making them right. If you want to be right, it has to begin with the heart. This is what Jesus says.
And it begins with some bad news. He begins with how the law works and reveals you're a sinner. It reveals the true nature of your heart. Well, I have a bad heart. Jesus.
Ah, guess what? Ezekiel 36 26. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. So you are a sinner.
Your heart is defiled. It's as cold as stone. Good news is I'm here to give you a new heart, a heart of flesh, a heart that will turn how you feel into love. And that love is the requirement that the law is all about to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, with your whole entire being. Not only will I give you a new heart, but I will also draw you with that new heart to myself.
John 644. We've already looked at this in weeks past. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. And I'll raise him up on the last day. When Jesus gives this, by way of the Holy Spirit, a new heart of flesh, he draws us to himself.
All of a sudden, we are that teenage boy that is awakened by love and romance. All of a sudden we see Christ for who he fully is, because we see our hearts for what they are, what they truly are, defiled. And he is our only solution. And all of a sudden, we long for him and the salvation he brings. Jesus points out that it's all about this love.
Matter of fact, a lot of times that we use the law and push in on the law, on people and on others in order to bring them to repentance. But is this what Jesus does? Does Jesus lead us to repent of our sin, to turn away from our sin by chastising, by giving us more law? Let's see. Let's see what his word says in romans two, four.
Or do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? What leads us to genuine, authentic repentance of sin? Is it not the mercy and grace and love and kindness of God when you realize that you have made a mess, when you realize that your heart is defiled, when it is cold stone and there's nothing you can do about it, and God shows up in Jesus Christ and says, I'm going to give you a new heart, and I'm going to be your solution. But you need to repent of your sin, and I'll be merciful and gracious and loving and kind towards you. You are like a moth to a flame.
I repent. I've been brought low. I can't do anything. If you will afford me a new life, if you will give me a new heart, if you will be merciful to me, if you will be gracious to me. And he leads us to repent of sin by his loving kindness.
And not only this, but he gives you the power to begin to be obedient to the law. Ephesians 113 says in him, you also, after listening to the message of truth and the gospel of your salvation, having also believed you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise. So if you believe in Jesus, if Jesus gives you a new heart, draws you to himself with a new heart, and you believe in him, and he gives you his Holy spirit, what does that Holy Spirit empower you to do now? Galatians 522 23 says, but the fruit of the spirit, this is the working of the spirit in your life. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy and peace and patience and, and kindness and goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.
Against such things, there is no law. How can that be? Because when it's about love and you have the heart, you will have liberty, not law. And that's what life in the spirit looks like. You move from somebody that says, I have to do these things because it's required to.
I get to do these things because I'm in love.
So how is it, then, if the law is nothing but causes us to die, reveals that we're sin sinful, and the wages of sin is death, but the life of the spirit stores up more love, and against such thing, there isn't law, then how do we move from being people? And let's just be honest, if we were to gauge ourselves, we lean towards law more than we do towards love. We often provide the solutions to problems being more law abiding than loving, because we believe in our categories and our minds that love isn't as powerful as a chastisement, as a punishment, as discipline.
And I'm guilty of this with my own son, I think oftentimes, Bo, you need to do this. Sit down, do not talk, and learn to be obedient in worship. Well, part of that language stirs my son's heart towards loving God. Nothing. All he sees God as is one who requires him to behave perfectly in worship.
Now, that's right. That's good. I am disciplining my son to learn how to worship. But there is a language that love must come first. I'm not negating the law, the use of the law, but I'm saying of first importance, love comes first.
I am to be shepherding my child's heart towards loving God. And so there's more to the conversation that needs to be had. There's more to shepherd his heart to say, God is a great and good God who is merciful and bestows his loving kindness to us. He is worthy of our respect. And because he's worthy of our respect, let's try to honor him by sitting still and not draw attention to us, but attention to him and bring him glory.
It's perspective when he violates the law. Like, I can't believe you've done this, or should I say, this breaks the heart of God? Buddy, we don't want to break God's heart because he loves us so much. He loves us and has died for us. He sacrifices for us.
Let's not break his rule. There's a way that you can stir and shepherd a child towards loving God and saying, oh, eventually he'll come into that love and he'll do it naturally. And there won't be such things as this conversation about love anymore. So how do we move from being people that are very legalistic law based to people of love? Galatians four four six says this.
But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman born under the law, so that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoptions of sons of because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of a son into your hearts so you can cry out, Abba, Father, what does that sound like a relationship? Christ has done all that needs to be done to have a relationship with the father. And he is the one who came under the law and did it perfectly in order to establish your relationship that you couldn't do. And so for us to move from law to love, we have to move to establish relationship, not religion. Our first posture towards others needs to be about relationship, to which the law does not do.
You need to be able to communicate that there's nothing you can do that removes you outside of the family, because it's all about relationship, not about how perfect you are. I'll never forget the time I was in Brunswick, Georgia. My dad had. We just moved to the lower 48. My dad still wanted to be in radio, and he got a radio station down in Brunswick, Georgia, where I almost died in the wave pool.
But that's beside the point. And so we're sitting there in the camper, and my stepsister for my dad's first marriage called and said, dad, I'm pregnant. She wasn't married. And I heard these words, and I learned very much from my dad that if you don't live a perfect life, you are removed from his love. And he said, you are no longer my daughter.
I disown you. I vowed as a nine year old to never communicate to my children that there's something they can do that will remove them from the family. I don't believe it and I don't see it in the scriptures. Last time I heard, Jesus chases the one leaving the 99 and bringing them into the family. Practically speaking, this is why I don't send Beau to his room or give him timeouts away from the family.
Your action causes you that you can't participate in the family anymore. I would rather spank his little behind and discipline him right then and there for him to understand there are natural consequences to his behavior, but it never removes him from the family. I never want to communicate that. And I believe Jesus communicates that in the gospel.
And that's how you establish relationships more than religion to move us from law to love. Not only that, but you have to commit yourself to growing in relationship and not advancing your religion, to not detour and get back into those legalistic ways, but to continue to foster that relationship. If the only time is barking out orders, that never develops or grows a relationship. But if you have to chastise, if you have to discipline, but then you always take the time to cultivate the relationship because you operate from the premise that love is there's. Love supersedes all things.
Love never fails, but the law will. Love never fails. I believe that's in scriptures. First Corinthians 13.
And we commit ourselves to that. Which means it takes time to love your kids in the midst when they're unlovable, to take time that I'm just not talking, speaking and correcting my son, but hugging him while I'm doing it, spending time to embrace him even though he's crying because he's upset that he did something wrong and he got disciplined for it. You take the time and you commit to that. And how is it that we commit ourselves to growing in a relationship with God? This right here, we grow in intimacy with God.
The more we get to know him and know his heart and what he wants for us. And so we open this and we read it and we discover more and we fall deeper in love with him. And the deeper we go and the more intimate we are with God the father, the more we want to be doing what is right for our lives according to him.
So we got to commit to growing and nurturing a relationship and not advancing our religion. Not saying that, okay, we're going to put on some padding here. And we're going to mark down all these rules. We're going to etch them around our house so that we know how we maintain a relationship. No, we need to be more about relationship than religion.
Then we trust more in being guided by the spirit instead of being guarded by the law. Romans 814 16 says this, for all who are being led by the spirit of God. These are the sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery, leaving the fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba, Father, the spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. When we walk by the spirit, we are liberated from the law.
We move from having to obey to we get to do this. We start acting like sons rather than slaves. If you were to characterize your relationship with Goddess, are you sitting there to say, okay, well, I've done this today. I didn't lie, I didn't cuss. I didn't use his name in vain.
I definitely didn't murder or hate anybody. I didn't commit adultery or look at anybody lust. I didn't do all these things. Is that what defines your relationship? Or are you guided by the spirit to say, hey, I don't want to offend anybody today I am happily wanting to do what God has required in his word, to do what he leads us to do.
I want to do that. I am free and I am doing those things because the law was given to keep us in death from death. The law was given to keep us from death, but the spirit is given to move us towards life. And lastly, the only work we commit is the work of love. What is the greatest example that can help us understand how we move from being legalistic or law to love?
Primarily first of first importance, love. Romans five eight. But God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. How is it that God has demonstrated his love towards you? Isn't it that he first moved towards love to you than you to him?
That's how we can demonstrate our love. Has he sacrificed his own son for you? Has he given his own life for you? Has he looked out for your own interests? Has he absorbed all the lies and the profanity that he received while he was demonstrating his greatest act of love?
Yes. How many of us get bent out of shape when somebody offends us and we don't respond with love?
The work that we should commit to first and foremost is not legalism. But is loving others the way Christ himself has demonstrated love for us? By giving of himself to us. This means you give yourself over to your spouse. You serve them out of love for them.
You sacrifice. When somebody offends you, you turn the other cheek. Somebody asks you for a shirt, you give them a cloak, you go the extra mile, because love never fails. And love works and compels and treats people more like sons than slaves. If we want to demonstrate our love for God and others, it's manifested in how we serve them, how we sacrificed for them, and in not reacting towards how they offend us.
Jesus was on the cross and everybody was hurling their insults. He says, forgive them, for they know not what they do. That builds relationship more than religion. So we're back to the questions we raised at the beginning. Now that we have looked at this gospel lesson and as we considered this question, is it law or is it love?
Does God require law or love from us? Is God more concerned about our religion or our relationship? Does God treat us as slaves or sons? How should law and love be applied? Which one should be of first importance?
Is it a both and situation or an either or? I would say yes. Most importantly, which one governs our lives in our relationships? Law or love? Let's pray.
Jesus, we thank you so much for the love that you've demonstrated to us on the cross and in your life. That you've done everything to build a relationship with your father, and that the law was never meant to make a relationship, but to reveal to us that we're far from you so that we can understand that when you came near to us, we would desire you. When you gave us a new heart. We thank you for your loving kindness. We pray that you would make us a people that is committed to being more in love than legalistic, that it would be more about loving in relationship than our religion and law.
Help us to apply both love and law rightly in our lives. Fill us with your holy spirit to guide us in this way of.