35. Legal and Ethical Standards
Legal and Ethical Standards
Chapter 34
Law is used in three senses: first of a system of legal enactments, the perfection of which only brings conscious condemnation; second, of the modified ethical principles of all right conduct; and third, of a tendency of human nature toward good or evil. Originally the law is a basis of justification; once broken it becomes a source of condemnation, but still suggests a guide to conduct. But only as a divine tendency to righteousness is implanted within, can the law of sin and death be overcome. So great prominence is given to the Legal element that not only was one of the three recognized divisions of the Old Testament “The Law,” but the whole book was often known as “The Law of the Lord.” The Ten Commandments were twice graven on stone tablets, by God; this fact serving to separate them as eternal ethical principles from the code generally, many of whose features were ceremonial and temporal; and to indicate their peculiar obligation, supremacy and perpetuity. The Decalogue is a specimen of singular symmetry and system. It is in two parts: four commands pertaining to God, and six pertaining to man. In the first four there is a regular progress of thought; first as to God as the sole object of all worship and obedience; then as to the spirituality of the mode of His worship; then as to reverence for His name, and finally for His day. The latter six precepts show a similar progress of thought. Duty to parents leads the way as the first form of obligation and obedience; then follow five things to be protected and guarded, and in the order of their importance: first life, then purity, then property, then reputation, and finally secret desires and dispositions.
Careful examination and analysis resolve the law into three codes. There is clearly, first of all, the moral, then one that is mainly ceremonial, and finally another which constituted the common civil and criminal code of the Hebrews. Some have thought that “commandments” stand for the moral, “statutes” for the ceremonial, and “judgments” for the civil and criminal. But this distinction it is not easy to maintain. The principle that God is to be worshipped, loved and served supremely is properly a moral one, and the ten commandments all represent a moral code, the last being solely moral as it has reference to the heart and motive which man cannot see or judge and of which courts cannot take cognizance. Some of the ten, such as concern outward acts, sins of the tongue and conduct, may belong both to the moral and civil or criminal codes, since they may be judged in human courts.
Enactments relating to the priesthood, and the whole service of offerings and sacrifices, observance of fasts and feasts, are mainly ceremonial, as they refer to an order which, however permanent, was not perpetual and has now passed away. There was little inherently right or wrong in a priest’s dress, or form of consecration, or acts of mediation. These all acquired their moral force from their typical bearings, and no one would for a moment lift to the same rank of obligation the injunction not to go up by steps to God’s Altar, or not to wear a garment of mixed woolen and linen, with such commands as not to worship a graven image, or not to kill, steal, or bear false witness.
It is equally plain that such portions of the code as cover misdemeanors, disputes between man and man, etc., constitute a distinct civil and criminal code to be enforced by judges in courts. The ceremonial code is doubtless meant in Hebrews 8:7 as “the first covenant,” described as decaying, waxing old, and ready to vanish away (Hebrews 8:13). Hence the apostles refused to impose it on new Christian converts (Acts 15:23-29, etc.). Its function was fulfilled when Christ, the great antitype, came and fulfilled its forecasts, and the substance was given of which its provisions were passing shadows.
Underneath all that is local, temporal and occasional, careful search will detect a deeper meaning:
1. A sanitary purpose, in guarding physical health.
2. A salutary object, in separating from surrounding heathenism.
3. A typical value, in exhibiting and illustrating moral distinctions.
4. A practical effect in abating carnal and sensual tendencies.
5. A sacrificial significance in connection with God’s Altar.
6. A spiritual purport in antagonizing prevailing idolatry and immorality.
7. A prophetical forecast, in foreshadowing the Great Sacrifice.[1] [1]The Sanitary Code of the Pentateuch, Rev. C.G. Gillespie.The Wonderful Law, H.L. Hastings.Code of Health, Whitelaw The more carefully this whole code is studied the wiser it appears. Some facts, never known until modern medical and sanitary science disclosed them, are giving new reason and significance to its provisions, justifying even what before seemed to be trivial or trifling, and vindicating its divine wisdom. The idea of a Decalogue, or system of Ten Words of God, or divine decrees, may be traced in other departments beside the moral, or ethical.
There is, for instance, the Creative Decalogue, or Code of Natural Laws prevailing in Creation and hinted in the Creative decrees in Genesis 1.[1] [1] Dr. Payne Smith 1. “Let Light be!” Very noticeable as not created but commanded to shine.
2. “Let there be an expanse.” An ordinance of atmospheric separation.
3. “Let the waters be gathered together.” An ordinance of segregation and aggregation.
4. “Let the earth bring forth grass,” etc. A decree of vegetable origins.
5. “Let there be lights in the expanse.” A decree of astronomical illumination.
6. “Let them be for signs and seasons.” A decree of natural succession of seasons.
7. “Let the waters bring forth the living creature.” A decree of animal beginnings.
8. “Let us make man.” The great ordinance of human creation.
9. “Let them have dominion.” The decree of sovereignty of higher life over lower.
10. “Be fruitful and multiply.” The ordinance of propagation. The enumeration and classification are unimportant to settle, but a progressive series of decrees is manifest, forming a code of natural laws for the material creation, such as the following:
Chemical combustion and combination developing the original cosmic heat and light.
Condensation, segregation and aggregation, with affinity and cohesion, producing a body of waters.
Vegetation, with cellular structure, growth and the phenomena of fertility and reproduction.
Planetary and stellar motion, axial and orbital, with centripetal and centrifugal forces, gravitation, etc. Illumination.
Duration and succession, the establishment of a temporal order with succession of day and night, times and seasons.
Elemental animal life, conscious, sentient, voluntary, with motion and reproduction.
Higher animal life, with advance in complexity of structure, organization, intelligence and rank of being—mammalia.
Humanity—the last and highest—with the divine image, independence, conscience, intelligence, the spirit of life, etc.
Dominion—the highest forms of life subjecting and controlling the lower, and maintaining supremacy.
There is here both a manifest completeness and a steady advance from lower to higher, simple to complex, from matter to mind, etc. The sermon on the mount gives us a modified moral Decalogue, which is easily traceable—the new laws of the Kingdom singularly correspondent with the old, such as:
“Seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness.”
“Swear not at all.”
“Be not angry.”
“Resist not evil.”
“Thou shalt not lust.”
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth.”
“Judge not.”
“Love your enemies.”
“Do unto others as ye would that others should do unto you,” etc.
A whole system of moral precepts may be gleaned here, which, being carefully arranged, singularly match and modify the ten commandments, and lift all ethical duties to the higher plane of loyalty to God and love to man—a sort of new Decalogue, modified to suit the dispensation of grace, and the increased revelation of truth and man’s relation to his fellow man. The correspondences and the differences are alike instructive. The old Decalogue opened by an assertion of the supremacy of Jehovah and the duty of giving Him the primary and solitary place in worship. The new Decalogue correspondingly insists upon giving Him the first rank in all things, seeking His righteousness and Kingdom as the foremost object and aim, and not allowing even right and lawful things which are secondary to hold the primary place. This injunction is the equivalent of the whole first table, as it puts God first and foremost. But the prohibition, “Swear not at all,” etc., expands the third commandment and applies its principle in several practical directions, giving it also wider scope as affecting all that in man deserves honor and reverence. The command, “Resist not evil,” with the rebuke of causeless and unjustifiable anger and insolent speech, expands the second table—and applies its principles. Obviously there will be no disobedience to parents, no murder, and no kindred acts of violence, if there be no disposition to retaliate injury, indulge wrong tempers, or permit unbridled speech. When we are forbidden even to lust after what is another’s, it covers all impure and unholy envy and jealousy, as well as sensuality. And if there be no avaricious greed, no lust of accumulation, there will be no stealing, or indirect robbery through unjust and dishonest dealing. When bidden to judge no one unjustly or harshly, and* to love even our enemies, the sin of bearing false witness is nipped in the bud, for, behind a lying and slanderous tongue, lies hatred or at least unjust judgment.
These considerations at least illustrate the fact that, in this Sermon on the Mount, our Lord is promulgating a sort of Christian Decalogue; He is interpreting the true sense of the original “Ten Words” of Jehovah, cleansing them from the corruption of traditionalism and the perversions of pharisaic formalism, giving them a deeper and more spiritual meaning and application, and teaching disciples a practically new code without destroying but rather fulfilling the old law. From other parts of the New Testament may be gathered a Domestic Decalogue for the regulation of family and church life—such as the following:
“Let every man abide in his calling with God” (1 Corinthians 7:20-24).
“Fathers, provoke not your children to anger” (Ephesians 6:4).
“Children obey your parents in the Lord” (Ephesians 6:1).
“Speaking the truth in love”—truthing in love (Ephesians 4:15).
“Be clothed with humility” (1 Peter 5:5).
“Study to be quiet” (1 Thessalonians 4:11).
“Consider one another” (Hebrews 10:24).
“Let your speech be always with grace” (Colossians 4:6).
“Support the weak” (1 Thessalonians 5:14).
“Mind your own business” (1 Thessalonians 4:11, etc.).
“Deny Thyself” (Matthew 26).
In other words—make God your partner, exercise godly self-control, mix truth with love, cultivate humility, keep the peace, be considerate of others, hold your tongue, mind your own business, help the needy, be self-forgetful.
What a new Eden would come to the race were such a new Decalogue in force! As the Holy Scriptures draw to a completion and a close, it is noticeable how all law is simplified and narrowed down to a few precepts and finally to one. Comparison of the following passages will be found to unfold a profound philosophy of all legal enactments, to show the uses of legislation and the conditions which make all law needless.
1 Timothy 1:9. “The law was not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient.”
Romans 10:4. “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.”
Romans 13:8-10. “He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law,” etc.
Galatians 3:24. “The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.”
Galatians 5:14. “All the law is fulfilled in one word—thou shalt love,” etc. Compare Matthew 22:36-38.
James 2:8. “If ye fulfill the Royal law—ye do well.”
These and similar teachings show that no outward code is needed when two great inner laws control: loving obedience God-ward, and loving unselfishness, man-ward; and thus all law is at last resolved into one: Love.
Law is not made for the law abiding, but for the lawless. Its restraints are never felt till they are disregarded; then they become a yoke and a fetter. The holy Angels know no law; being in entire sympathy with God, they move in the same direction as He does, without any constraint. We may all do as we please when we please to do as we ought; and the highest end and result of law is to train us to obedience, to show us the blessedness of the “undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord,” to reveal to us how they “walk at liberty who seek His precepts,” and how, when the law of God is “in the heart,” not an external, compulsory code, but an internal, impulsory principle, perfect freedom is attained.
Someone has sought to illustrate this by a fable of the birds, that at their creation they were wingless; that subsequently the wings were created and attached to them as burdens; but when cheerfully and patiently borne on their shoulders, the wings grew fast; the burdens changed to pinions, and what the birds first bore, bore them.