Laws are necessary to make life livable. But too much law
defeats its purpose. In The Federalist Papers (no. 63), James Madison warned against
drawing laws that were too dense and complicated. “It will be of little avail
to the people . . .if laws are so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so
incoherent that they cannot be understood.” he said. Cicero, 200 years ago,
said bluntly, “The more laws, the less justice.”
That
is the problem that America deals with today, confusing, lengthy laws so easily
misused. And one Justice warned when a law's length exceeded 20 pages, it is
simply too long to be useful.
Do you remember when you studied the
Ten Commandments? There was a phrase in
the 8th commandment Luther used. He said in any dealing with our
neighbors, always to “put the best construction on everything”.
That seems hard for us to do because
we are sinners. We tend to look on the shady side of things or actions, don’t we? The German has a phrase, “Schadenfreude”, which means I am secretly pleased at
your bad luck.
Moses came down from the mountain carrying
ten commandments. Of them Jesus said this, “On these two commandments hang all
the law and the prophets"; Matthew 22,40, and Jesus was referring to this when
they asked Him, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?” His reply, “Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." "And the second is like unto it, thou
shalt love they neighbor as thyself.” Matthew 22, 36-39.
And that has not changed. For the
Christian does not look for loopholes or forgotten corners, he keeps the law as
it plainly was written, and he honors his God, and always does for his neighbor,
“Put the best construction on everything”.
That life will have rich blessing.
GPD
5/23/14
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