I saw the strangest thing this evening. I was standing at the condiment counter at a McDonalds beside a fairly nicely dressed elderly man who was stuffing his pockets full of those little packets of ketchup, mustard and relish. Looking right at him I said, “Hey, how you doing?” Without the slightest embarrassment he responded, “Fine” and kept right on cleaning out the bins. Unlike the day I observed an old man steal a fish from our supermarket, I wasn’t sure if this man was stealing. I mean, those packets are there for people to take.
Have you ever done something that wasn’t illegal but somehow just didn’t feel quite right? It’s one of those fine line issues that isn’t covered by a rule or law and yet isn’t really right. It’s the difference between living by laws or living by principles. It was what Paul was talking about in Galatians. When we begin to live by the principle of love, laws cease to matter. We don’t need a law telling us not to steal because love motivates us not to harm someone by taking from them. The same goes for telling bad stories about someone. When we love we will not do that because we don’t want to.
Have you ever heard someone say he did not want to be a Christian because there were too many don’ts? They just don’t get it. When one is a Christian there are only two principles to guide us, love for God and love for man. It’s the non-Christian who has to worry about not doing a host of things he might want to do. Living by principles is what Paul is referencing in Galatians 5 when he speaks of our freedom in Christ.
Written by Roger Bothwell on April 30, 2010
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org