HomeARC ML 0647
"LOVE VS. LAW!"--By Moses David July 23, 1977 GP NO.647
Copyrighted Jan. 1978 by the Children of God
1. FIRST OF ALL, WE KNOW THAT ALL MOSAIC LAWS ARE NULL AND VOID as far as we are concerned. Christ was the end of the law, He fulfilled the law, and from then on we were no longer under the law. And as Paul taught time and time again all through his epistles, they were no longer under the law but now under God's grace, God's Love.--Jesus!
2. EVERYTIME THAT CHRIST HIMSELF QUOTED THE LAW HE WAS ILLUSTRATING A POINT for a particular purpose, just like we sometimes expose people with their own arguments when they contradict them themselves. He said, "Ye have heard that it was said," quoting the Mosaic law, "thou shalt not commit adultery," but I say unto you:
3. "WHOSOEVER LOOKETH ON A WOMAN TO LUST AFTER HER HATH COMMITTED ADULTERY WITH HER ALREADY in his heart." (Mt.5:27.28.) Now what man on God's Earth can possibly look upon a beautiful woman, no matter who she is, without lusting after her? Nobody! Nobody's that saintly, nobody's that good, and Jesus knew it!
4. HE WAS QUOTING THAT SCRIPTURE TO PROVE TO THE SELF-RIGHTEOUS HYPOCRITICAL SCRIBES AND PHARISEES THAT NOT EVEN THEY COULD POSSIBLY KEEP THE LAW! He was proving that it was impossible for any man on God's Earth to ever keep the Mosaic law, and that's why it was given, to show the righteousness of God, the perfection of God.
5. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR ANYONE TO BE GOOD ACCORDING TO THE MOSAIC LAW! The Mosaic Law makes every one of us a sinner because not one of us can keep it! Nobody has ever kept the Ten Commandments except Jesus Himself, nobody! It's impossible!
6. THAT'S WHY JESUS HAD TO DIE FOR US, SO THAT WE COULD BE FORGIVEN AND BE SAVED by His grace and His mercy and His love without the law! By the law we are judged for our sins and condemned to die and to suffer. But Jesus came to save us by love, by His mercy, showing that love and mercy are greater than the law, and He says so! (Jn.1:17, Gal.5:14, Tit.3:5.)
7. HIS ENEMIES, THE SELF-RIGHTEOUS HYPOCRITES, KEPT TRYING TO ACCUSE HIM and trick Him and trap Him in some little technical violation of the law. He said, "I'll tell you what you need to learn, you need to learn what mercy is," in other words, what love is. (Mt. 9:13)
8. HE SAID YOU NEED TO GO BACK AND LEARN WHAT GOD MEANT WHEN HE SAID, "I WILL HAVE MERCY AND NOT SACRIFICE." (Mt.9:13, 12:7.) In other words, I would rather see you have love and not this sacrificial dutiful law-keeping offering of sacrifices and duties, I'd rather you'd give love to somebody than to just be so self-righteous.
9. I HAVE HEARD PREACHERS SAY "AHA! YOU SEE? YOU'RE A NAUGHTY BOY IF YOU LOOK UPON A WOMAN TO LUST AFTER HER." Well, I can hardly remember any woman I ever looked at when I was a kid that I didn't lust after! I used to sit there on the church bench and look at the pianist's behind while she was playing and think how beautiful it was and how wonderful if I could get ahold of it, and I'd almost get hard just watching it!
10. IT'S IMPOSSIBLE FOR ANY MAN TO KEEP SUCH A LAW because no man is that good! No man is that perfect, no man is that sinless that he can even look upon a beautiful woman without lusting after her, no matter whose wife she is, nobody, nobody!
11. SO JESUS WAS TRYING TO PROVE THAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR MAN TO KEEP THE MOSAIC LAWS, and that therefore since it's impossible for us to keep God's laws, then how could we be saved? Well, we have to be saved by love and mercy by grace.
12. THIS IS WHY HE SAID THAT HE WAS THE FULFILMENT OF THE LAW, HE WAS THE END OF THE LAW, and that after Him there was no more law. (Mt.5:17, Ro.10:4.) Paul brings this out time and time again, this is what nearly all of Paul's whole writing is about in his epistles: Anti-works, anti-law, and pro-grace, pro-love.
13. ANOTHER TIME THAT JESUS SPOKE ABOUT ADULTERY HE SAID THAT MOSES SAID THAT YOU COULD DIVORCE your wife and marry another. Then He said, "But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife"--now that's talking about divorce, showing the horrible heinous sin of divorce. He is not talking abut adultery being such a great sin, He is talking about divorce being the greater sin.
14. "WHOSOEVER SHALL PUT AWAY HIS WIFE, AND SHALL MARRY ANOTHER, COMMITTETH ADULTERY." (Mt.5:32,19:9) It doesn't even say that the other woman was somebody else's wife, she could have been single, but if you put away your wife, in other words you divorce her, and you marry somebody else, you're committing adultery.
15. OF COURSE THEY WERE ALWAYS THINKING THAT ADULTERY WAS ALMOST THE GREATEST SIN OF ALL. They seemed to think it was a greater sin than murder, from the way the Scribes and the Pharisees handled it, probably because it was their biggest temptation!
16. HE WAS SAYING THAT YOU'RE JUST AS BAD AS AN ADULTERER IF YOU DIVORCE YOU WIFE, because, He said, "it causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever marries her that is divorced committeth adultery." (Mt.5:32) In other words, you forced her to become the wife of some other man, which is a lack of love and in His eyes was adultery, you didn't love her enough to keep her yourself and love her, but you put her away.
17. NOW IT DOES NOT SAY IT'S ADULTERY WHEN YOU KEEP THE WOMAN AS YOUR WIFE and you continue to let her enjoy your name and your house and her status as your wife. But if you've thrown her out, you've divorced her, you've put her away, this way you make her an adulteress. Do you understand? (Mt.19:9)
18. HE DOESN'T SAY YOU MAKE HER AN ADULTERESS BY LOANING HER TO SOMEBODY, BUT STILL HONOURING HER AND LOVING HER and taking her back when she gets through. That's not what He's talking about at all. We're not even in that class at all.
19. IF YOU PUT AWAY YOUR WIFE, HE SAYS, THEN YOU'RE AN ADULTERER, THEN YOU MAKE HER AN ADULTERESS, AND THEN THE GUY WHO MARRIES HER IS AN ADULTERER. If you put away your wife and she marries somebody else, three people are then guilty of adultery--the husband, the wife and the guy who marries her!
20. (MARIA: IF YOU PUT HER AWAY WHEN SHE DOESN'T WANT TO BE PUT AWAY.) Exactly, if you put her away when she doesn't want to be put away. I mean it's an entirely different thing when they depart--then the Bible says a brother or sister's not bound in such a case. (1Cor.7:15)
21. IT SAYS IF THEY WANT TO DEPART, LET THEM DEPART, THEN YOU'RE NOT BOUND, that's a totally different thing. In other words, if your wife wants to leave you permanently and go off with some other man, doesn't want to have anything to do with you anymore, doesn't want to live with you anymore, doesn't want to live in the same house with you anymore, doesn't want to be your wife anymore, it says let her depart! That's a totally different case. A brother or sister is not bound in such a case.
22. SO THAT DOESN'T MAKE YOU AN ADULTERER IF SHE GOES OFF and marries somebody else. She has made the choice and therefore she's gone off with somebody else. Whether she is classified as an adulteress, since she's the one who ran off with somebody else, is something that is not made clear.
23. I'M INCLINED TO BELIEVE SHE IS PROBABLY GUILTY because she forsook her husband. (Mk.10:12 and I Cor.07:10-11) If her husband wants to keep her and he's willing to keep her but she runs off, then I would say she'd probably be classed as an adulteress and the guy she marries an adulterer. In this case she's guilty of desertion and probably adultery.
24. HE IS TALKING ABOUT DIVORCE AS BEING A FAR GREATER SIN THAN ANY OTHER TYPE OF MARITAL OR SEXUAL SIN. Divorce, in other words, no longer loving your wife, no longer caring for her, no longer loving her, do you understand? (Mal.2:14-16)
25. ANOTHER CASE THAT I REMEMBER IS WHEN THE WOMAN CAUGHT IN THE ACT OF ADULTERY WAS BROUGHT TO HIM (John 8) and they said, "Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?" What did He say?--"Okay, let's pick up stones boys and throw them at her!"--No! He said,
26. "HE THAT IS WITHOUT SIN AMONG YOU, LET HIM FIRST CAST A STONE AT HER"--and they all slunk away because they all knew they were sinners! They were probably lusting after her right that minute!
27. SO WHAT DID JESUS DO IN THE CASE OF THIS WOMAN? HE FORGAVE HER, right? He showed great mercy. What did He do in the case of another "bad" woman who came and washed His feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair? What did He do? He forgave her, showed great mercy and love! (Luke 7:36:50)
28. WHAT DID HE DO WITH MARY MAGDALENE WHO WAS POSSESSED WITH SEVEN DEVILS, A VERY FAMOUS WHORE, famous courtesan, a favorite of the heads of Rome and so on, the heads of State there in Jerusalem. What did He do with her? He cast out the seven devils, forgave her, and she had great love for Him. (Luke 8:2)
29. I EVEN BELIEVE THAT HE LIVED WITH HER AND MARY AND MARTHA LATER, which was no sin for Him, because He couldn't commit sin. Everything that He did He did in love, He probably did it for their sakes as much as His own--He had physical needs just like they did.
30. AND IT WAS NO SIN, WHY SHOULD IT BE SIN? If it helped Him and it helped them and it showed His love for them and their love for Him, who could it offend? No one but the self righteous hypocritical Scribes and Pharisees, His critics and enemies! They're the only ones it offended because they were trying to get something on Him.
31. SO IN EVERY SUCH CASE AS THIS THE LORD WAS EXTREMELY MERCIFUL for one thing, extremely broad-minded for another, and extremely forgiving and eventually He said that God's only law was love. They asked Him "what" is the greatest commandment? He said, "Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart ... And thy neighbour as thyself.... On these hang all the law and the prophets." (Mt.22:36-40)
32. IN OTHER WORDS THERE IS NOW NO OTHER LAW BUT LOVE. If it's done in love and all parties concerned are agreed because they love each other, then there is no sin.-It is love!
33. WHEN I GAVE HER TO OTHERS BECAUSE I LOVED THEM, THERE WAS NO SIN whatsoever, I did it in pure sacrificial unselfish love for them, because I even loved them, in a sense, more than I loved myself!
34. I WAS CONCERNED ABOUT THEM AND THEIR NEED FOR LOVE and I wanted her to love them because I knew they needed it. I loved them enough that I wanted her to make love to them.
35. BUT I DELIBERATELY WILLFULLY, KNOWINGLY, DETERMINEDLY, MYSELF WILLINGLY GAVE HER TO THEM, loaned her to them for a little while, that she might love them and relieve them and try to save them. This was no sin on my part, this was love!
36. IT WAS CERTAINLY NO SIN ON HER PART, she did it out of sacrificial love as well. Whether she did it in love for me or both of us, she did it in love so it's no sin. I did it in totally unselfish pure sacrificial love and so did she!
37. IF ANYBODY WAS AT ALL SELFISH IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN THE POOR BABE to whom she was given, especially if he didn't understand it. But nevertheless he had the need, like a little baby, and he received what he needed. And as far as he was concerned, because I was willing and she was willing and we both did it in love, he took it by faith, and it was it was no sin!
38. IF HE RECEIVED IT BY FAITH HE ALSO HAS NO SIN BECAUSE HE IS RECEIVING LOVE AS A GIFT OF LOVE. How could it be a sin for him to receive our love? We both willingly gave it, right? So it's no sin for him. It was all done in love?
39. SO AS FAR AS WE'RE CONCERNED AND AS FAR AS THE BIBLE SAYS, FOR US THERE IS NO SUCH THING ANYMORE AS ADULTERY! There is no such thing anymore as a Biblical law against adultery, as long as whatever is done is done in love, because the "Law of love" supersedes all other laws!
40. NOW, IF A WOMAN SELFISHLY FOR HER OWN LUSTFUL PURPOSES GOES AGAINST HER HUSBAND'S DESIRES and against his will and hurts him by running off with another man or goes to bed with another man, that's a totally different story!
41. I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT HIM BEING HURT BY SACRIFICIALLY LOVING--Jesus got hurt on the cross, but He did it willingly and He did it of His own desire to save us. So it may have hurt me sometimes in a way because it was a sacrifice, but it was a sacrifice of love.
42. DAVID SAID, "I WILL NOT OFFER UNTO THE LORD OF THAT WHICH DOTH COST ME NOTHING!" (2Sam.24:24.) I'm not going to give the Lord something that doesn't hurt me or is no sacrifice and costs me nothing. I've given the Lord of that which cost me a great deal!
43. SO IF THE HUSBAND HAS DONE IT WILLINGLY, AND HAS DONE IT IN LOVE, even if it might hurt a little, then he will receive his reward because he did it in love. If the wife did it in love sacrificially, unselfishly in love for him, for another man, she will receive her reward, she did it in love.
44. IF THE MAN RECEIVED IT AS AN UNCOMPROMISING GIFT OF LOVE, knowing that it was with mutual consent on the part of both the husband and the wife and they did it in love because they love him, he merely receives the gift of love and it is no sin on his part.
45. BUT I DON'T THINK ANY HUSBAND WHO HAS A WIFE AVAILABLE AND WILLING TO SUPPLY HIS SEXUAL NEEDS, NEEDS OUR SEXUAL LOVE. I have always been against supplying such husbands with sex if they have someone who can give them sex and who gives it willingly and lovingly and who satisfies this need.
46. NOW IF SHE IS WITHHOLDING HERSELF OR GIVING BEGRUDGINGLY and he gets no real love out of it, then she's not satisfying his need for love by giving mere sex. If she's giving it begrudgingly or resentfully or even with abjection and she doesn't give it gladly, willingly, cheerfully and in love, then she is not supplying that need, and she is guilty of denying herself to that husband and she herself is causing him to seek it elsewhere.
47. SO HE IS NOT THE GUILTY PARTY, SHE IS THE GUILTY ONE for not giving that man his due, right? The Scripture explicitly forbids you to withold yourselves from each other, explicitly! So any woman withholding herself from her husband is breaking the law of love and the laws of the New Testament, I Corinthians 7th Chapter, verses 3-5.
48. ALSO, IF A WIFE NOT ONLY DENIES HIM SEX BUT EVEN LEAVES HIM, THE SCRIPTURE CONSIDERS HER THE GUILTY PARTY! If she's forsaken him against his will, Paul says she's still bound to her husband as long as she lives and she better not marry because she still belongs to him. (1Cor.7:10-11.) Now if he gives her away and sets her free, and she want to leave, he's free and she's free. This was even in the Mosaic Law for that matter.
49. JESUS WAS TRYING TO SHOW HOW THE LAW OF LOVE WAS EVEN MORE STRICT THAN THE MOSAIC LAW! The Mosaic Law allowed divorce and allowed a woman to remarry without being considered an adulteress. They didn't even have to have the consent of the woman in those days, as long as the man just was no longer pleased with her, he could divorce her.
50. (MARIA: SO IF THE WOMAN LEAVES, SHE'S STILL BOUND TO HER HUSBAND AND CAN'T MARRY, BUT WHAT ABOUT HIM?) He's not bound if she ran off and left him and he was not the guilty party. Paul himself says that the brother or sister is not bound in such a case. (1Cor.7:15.) He says let her depart!
51. ANY WOMAN WHO DENIES HERSELF TO HER HUSBAND HAS LEFT HIM! Even if they're still sleeping in the same bed together, she has in spirit and in body departed from him! So it says let her depart, a brother or sister is not bound in such a case. The church has got this thing so screwed up for so many years it's pitiful!
52. WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE if simply because of her desire to save her home and hang on to her husband in name only and her meal ticket and her job and her children, that she pretends openly that she's still his wife, whereas she is denying her husband in bed and is refusing him the privileges of a husband and is refusing to be a wife to him in bed!
53. IF SHE'S REFUSING TO BE A WIFE TO HIM IN BED SHE IS NO WIFE! She has left him in spirit and in body and has departed! And God's Word says, "Let her depart! A brother or sister is not bound in such a case!"
54. IF SHE DENIES HIM SEX PERSISTENTLY AND CONSISTENTLY and continuously, not just because sometimes she's tired or sometimes she's sick or out of the mood or something, but she does it all the time because she hates him or she just doesn't like him or doesn't like sex, she is literally departing from her husband. (Maria: There're a lot of women that do that!) Oh yes, there sure are!
55. THE CHURCH SOMETIMES ADVISES WOMEN TO DO IT JUST TO HOLD A CLUB OVER THEIR HUSBAND'S HEAD and to try to control the husband through the women. That's a common practice of the church, and let's face it, most of the churches do the same in spirit and in effect.
56. (MARIA: WHAT IF THE WOMAN GOES OFF AND DOESN'T COME BACK AND THE HUSBAND WAITS A REASONABLE TIME?) If she runs off, he doesn't have to wait any time at all! He's free from the moment she hits the door!
57. IF SHE COMES BACK A LITTLE LATER SAYING "I'M SORRY, TAKE ME BACK IN," the best he can do is say, "Well, I'm sorry too, dear. Since you say you're sorry and you repent and you want to come home, I'll have to take you back in because the Bible says to. I'll forgive you and take you back in love." (Mt.6:15; 18:21-22.)
58. "BUT YOU'LL ALSO HAVE TO SLEEP WITH ANOTHER WOMAN ON THE OTHER SIDE OF ME because I've already found somebody else!"--And there's nothing she can do about it--at least not according to the laws of God, but maybe according to the laws of man!
59. MAN'S LAWS ARE BASED ON CHURCH LAWS, which as Jesus said, "Ye do by your traditions make of none effect the law of God!" (Mt.15:6) And that's exactly what some church laws do and some men's laws do--they make of none effect the law of God the law of love!
60. IN MANY WAYS THE LAW OF LOVE IS EVEN MORE STRICT THAN THE MOSAIC LAW. Under the Mosaic Law you could divorce, put your wife away, although God said He hated it. Well, now He won't tolerate it anymore unless she's guilty.
61. JESUS SAID YOU'RE COMMITTING A GREAT SIN IF YOU PUT AWAY YOUR WIFE OR DIVORCE HER EXCEPT FOR THE CAUSE OF FORNICATION. (Mt.5:32)--In other words, unless she's been unfaithful to you--then you're justified in getting rid of her if you want to. On the other hand, another thing He says countermands it:
62. IF SHE'S SORRY AND SHE COMES BACK BEGGING FOR FORGIVENESS, HE SAYS YOU MUST FORGIVE HER. Now which are you going to do? The one supersedes the other. Love in both cases supersedes the law. Do you understand? Love supersedes the law in all cases.
63. IN OTHER WORDS, IF YOUR WIFE COMMITS ADULTERY OR FORNICATION or is unfaithful to you in some way, Jesus as good as said you have a right to divorce her. But on the other hand He said, "It's better to forgive." "And if you don't forgive other people their sins, your Father in Heaven is not going to forgive you for your sin!" (Mt.6:14,15.)
64. IF YOU'RE GOING TO BE SO DAMN SELF-RIGHTEOUS AND HOLIER THAN-THOU and hypocritical as to think you're holier than your wife because she has sinned against you, but oh, no, you're the biggest sinner of all! Because self-righteousness is one of the greatest sins of all!
65. THEREFORE THE LAW OF LOVE SUPERSEDES THE LAW OF JUSTICE. The law of justice says you can divorce her if she has been disloyal and unfaithful to you, and for a lot of reasons. But the law of love says if she's sorry you should forgive her and take her back in and love her. How do you know but maybe you're going to win her, you might even win her!
66. (MARIA: THAT "UNFAITHFUL" MEANS WHEN SHE'S DONE IT TO HURT HIM?)--Or in selfishness or just plain sinful lust or whatever! If she's done it in such a way that it was against his consent or without his consent and against his will, and therefore it hurt him, then it's wrong.
67. IF ALL PARTIES CONCERNED ARE NOT AGREED AND CONSENTING, THEN IT'S WRONG. If any party disagrees but they are a guilty party themselves who are part of the cause, then that's a different story. See, it's a very complicated thing when you get into declaring who's guilty and who isn't, who's innocent.
68. THAT'S WHY YOU JUST HAVE TO GO ENTIRELY PURELY BY LOVE, and by doing it in love, and because I love someone and they need love. You say, "Well, maybe it's hurting the wife." Maybe she deserves to be hurt, maybe she needs it, maybe she's denied him! Why else unless his wife is not giving him the kind of love he needs?
69. IF SHE DENIES HIM SEX, SHE IS DEPARTING FROM HER HUSBAND and it's strictly against the laws of not only the Old Testament but the New Testament. So therefore God's Word says, he is not bound in such occasion. Not bound for what? He's not bound to her anymore. Meaning what? He's free! Free for what? To find somebody else if he wants to, who'll give him what he needs, right?
70. THAT'S LOVE, THAT'S GOD'S LAW OF LOVE. Any woman who withholds herself from her husband does not love her husband, so if he doesn't get love from his wife he is free to find it somewhere else according to God's Law of Love, and that's the truth! That's God's Word and that's it!
71. GOD NOW ONLY JUDGES US ACCORDING TO WHETHER WE HAVE LOVE OR NO LOVE--whether we have love or hate--whether what we do is done for love or selfishness and lack of love. And the one who had love and acted in love is the innocent party. And the one who acted without love and because he had no love is the guilty party--he or she!
72. IF YOU KNOW YOU'RE ACTING IN LOVE, THEN YOU CAN GO AHEAD BY FAITH ACCORDING TO GOD'S WORD and you don't need anything else. You don't need any other laws to go by, you don't need any other laws to confirm it. You're not guilty of disobeying God's laws as long as whatever you're doing you're doing in love.
73. OF COURSE YOU BETTER WATCH OUT FOR MAN AND HIS LAWS, and sometimes women and wives who are still operating under man's laws and church laws and traditions which deny the law of God and make God's laws of none effect. You better watch out for those people, because they might get you under the laws of the government and the government carries the guns and they just might give you some trouble!
74. MAN'S LAWS DON'T ALWAYS JIVE WITH GOD'S LAWS, ESPECIALLY HIS LAW OF LOVE. So you better watch your step if you're offending the government or the church or your wife or your husband! We cannot please everybody, we can't always please the government, certainly not the church, and very often not even our husbands and wives!--So LOVE!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
