Law

Plato and Aristotle felt that man was naturally a political creature and that politics were just the outworking of his nature. There was a philosopher who disagreed with them however. That man was Augustine, a great thinker in his day. He also happened to be a leader in the Christian Community and the foundations of his philosophy lay in Scripture.

Augustine pointed out that man originally was created a social being but not a political being. Mankind’s original mandate included dominion over the fish and birds and animals but not over other men.

It was after the “fall”, after man’s parents sinned in the original creation, that man began exercising dominion over other men. And it was after the “fall” that the State with all of its various devises of coercion, punishment and oppression made its appearance. 

If our forebears had not sinned, he held, the State would not have come into existence since in their original place and condition there was no need for it. Before sin mankind lived in love, peace and harmony with each other, with their Creator and with nature. Their choice of disobedience changed all that.

In considering the State and its “various devices of coercion” I put before you the following:

Behind every law is a man with a gun.

What most people do not understand is all laws are backed by power and force. Somewhere, behind them all, stands someone ready to force people to obey those laws. 

For instance, take the compulsory schooling laws. 

In 1972 a man in the State of Wisconsin by the name of Yoder made a momentous decision. He decided that he would not send his children to Public School and would instead school them at home. He felt that sending his children to Public School exposed them to things that he would rather they not be exposed to until they had grown to such an age where they could handle it. And he disagreed with certain aspects of the education children received in Public School.

The State sent truancy notices and eventually Truant Officers to find out why the children were not in school. Mr. Yoder explained his position, explained that the children were in school (just not in Public School) and that they were being educated.

The State maintained that the Yoder children were required by law to attend Public School and that if they did not being attendance, the Police would be called in.

Eventually the Police showed up and arrested Mr. & Mrs. Yoder and confiscated their children, placing them in State Foster Care.

Behind the compulsory schooling laws – which were enacted partially to keep children from being enslaved in the work force at a young age, and also to benefit the nation by creating an educated populace – behind those laws stood a man with a gun, ready to make people obey that law. To the letter. Even when it was known that the children were receiving an education. Perhaps even a better education than in the Public School System.

It did not matter they were being educated. They were not being educated according to the law!

Now .. in the United States we do have a system of Courts and if you can afford it, you can fight the legal system. Mr. Yoder did so over the next few years. He lost case after case and kept appealing to the next higher court. Eventually the US Supreme Court heard his case. The Court over-ruled all the previous courts and said that Mr. Yoder’s religious beliefs were protected by the Constitution of the United States. 

It is because of Mr. Yoder’s bravery and determination that the law was amended to give more leeway in education. Because of Mr. Yoder we have Home-Schooling provisions in most States today. 

I stated earlier that behind each law stands a man with a gun, ready to enforce those laws. That is the basis of law. Force. Most people don’t push things far enough to activate that force. But it will happen if you ignore the law and continue to break it. 

For instance let’s say that you accumulate a number of parking tickets, but you do not pay them. Let this go on long enough and some day you will be confronted by a person with a gun who will place you under arrest and take you to jail.

Try not paying your property taxes, or ignoring the Federal Income Tax. 

Mao Tse Tung understood this. In 1938 he espoused the principle, “Political power comes out of the barrel of a gun.” and enlarged on that thought in his book YU CHI CHAN (Guerilla Warfare).

Again, I am not saying we should have no law. The United States is a Republic and as such is supposed to be founded on the rule of law. What we do need is a careful consideration of the laws we pass and a review of the laws we already have. And we should recognize always that behind every law no matter how innocuous it seems there is force. 

There are situations where law is not needed. Those are when people have a relationship based on love. 

The Master was once asked what the greatest commandment of all was. To understand the context of this question, please realize He lived in a time when individual’s lives were detailed by law. They had laws about what to eat and how to eat it, laws governing how far they could travel on certain days, laws concerning dress. Every facet of life had a rule or a law.

When asked the question as to which was the greatest He said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' He went on to explain these two things were the essence of all the other laws!

The “force” behind the law of the Kingdom of God is love. 
                                      The unselfish-putting-others-first-no-greed-truthful kind of love! 

I understand that when there is no relationship based on loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and loving your neighbor as yourself, laws are needed.

Behind those laws is force.

Behind the Laws of the Kingdom of God is force also, but what a different kind of force!  And what a difference between the kingdom of men and the Kingdom of God.

It is horrible that the very people to whom the Master left the command to “Love one another as I have loved you” have in large part forgotten it. 

We have become good organizers and recruiters and builders. We can teach and preach on tithing, giving, how to dress, how to speak, and a myriad of things that we should not do. But we have come far short of loving one another.

What would happen if there arose a people who loved one another in the way that Jesus loved us?


HINT:
The answer is in the Gospel of John, chapter 17, in verses 21 and 23