Abstract
Law in the Service of Order
The envelope that came through my door last May was marked ‘Private and Confidential’. My curiosity gave way to concern when I opened it and read the letter heading: ‘Suffolk Constabulary’. I’d been caught speeding by a Community Speed Watch. I checked the date and the place. I remembered seeing people in fluorescent jackets with a speed camera as I drove through an unfamiliar village on my way to a meeting, more worried about being on the right road than watching for the speed limit. I slowed down immediately, but it was too late.
The letter’s tone was stern. ‘It would appear that the driver of your vehicle has a disregard for the reasons why speed restrictions are in place and why they should be complied with. … Speeding represents anti-social behaviour’. This time I was being let off with a warning. But I wouldn’t be so fortunate in future.
I was struck by what the letter said about punishment. ‘Speeding is not simply about fines and endorsements on a driving licence. It is a key contributor to road traffic collisions within your own community. … I am writing to ask for your co-operation to modify your driving behaviour and comply with the speed limit’. The letter was looking for a change of attitude on my part, to make me a more responsible, safer driver.
My warning letter has made me think about rules and regulations. All societies need laws, not only to protect but also to promote behaviours that benefit everyone. They enable us to moderate the pull of self-interest and check the ‘right now’ of our desires. Rules don’t just affect what we do; they influence who and how we are.
The Bible contains a number of collections of rules and regulations. There are over 600 associated with Moses. But the point is not to promote slavish obedience. According to Deuteronomy 30:16, obeying God’s laws is a matter of the heart as well as the head. Obedience expresses love for God rather than unquestioning compliance. In Psalm 119, devotion to God’s law fashions virtues such as integrity and loyalty. It fosters wisdom, and brings blessings to the whole community.
We speak of law and order, but which is more important? Why not reverse them and speak of ‘order and law’? Look at the way Paul responded to the chaos at Corinth. The Corinthian church was too influenced by the competitiveness and self-interest that ruled a prosperous, cosmopolitan city. It was divided by loyalties to particular apostles—Paul, Apollos, Cephas (1 Corinthians 1:12; 3:9). Some of its members lived as if rules no longer mattered. Wealthier Christians seem to have had little regard for the well-being of their poorer brothers and sisters.
Paul’s letter is stern at times, but he didn’t throw the rule book at its readers. Instead, he reminded them that they now lived in a world that was differently ordered. He believed that Christ crucified was at the heart of God’s new creation, which turned conventional understandings of power and wisdom on their head (1 Corinthians 1:23–24). Throughout the letter, Paul put law in the service of order, and insisted that the rules that regulate Christian conduct should reflect the new world taking shape around the crucified Christ. In a city divided by competitive self-interest, he reckoned that nothing was more important than faith, hope, and love. ‘And the greatest of these is love’ (1 Corinthians 13:13).
Law in the service of order. Would Moses have agreed? Would Jesus?
My warning letter from the Suffolk Constabulary reflects two approaches to rules and regulations. We see the more obvious one in the desire to enforce the speed limit. Laws tell us where the boundary lies between what is and is not acceptable. The minimum wage. Equality and Diversity laws. Planning regulations. Health and Safety. Drink-drive laws. Animal welfare regulations. These are all examples of rules that regulate our behaviour by setting limits.
Some people are inclined to see some rules and regulations (usually those they would rather ignore) as ‘red tape’, signs of a government interfering in things it should keep out of. But the other approach focusses less on boundaries and limits and more on ordering the world wisely and well. My warning letter puts speed limits at the service of safety. It is more concerned to reduce the numbers of people killed or injured on the roads than to punish those who are caught driving too fast. Again this is law in the service of order.
What did Jesus think about rules and regulations? He certainly held Moses in high regard, as we’d expect. According to Matthew’s gospel, he didn’t treat laws as red tape that should be swept aside wherever possible. ‘I came not to abolish the law but to fulfil it’, he said (Matthew 5:17). But Jesus was more concerned with what happens before people reach the limits, more interested in the territory enclosed by the boundary than the boundary itself.
We can see this in the Gospel reading. It’s not enough, Jesus says, to keep on the right side of the laws about murder or adultery. You might just about manage not to be violent towards that person, but you might be consumed by the anger you feel towards him. You may only ever speak to him with abusive or insulting words. According to Jesus, that’s not acceptable. You might just about be able to resist having an affair with that woman or man, but every time you think about him or see her, your mind might be full of the desire that takes you in that direction. According to Jesus, that’s not acceptable. Why not?
What we focus on tends to grow, psychologists tell us. The thoughts and images that roam around our minds and drive our desires inevitably affect what we say and do, for good and ill. Jesus recognises this. That’s why he’s concerned for what happens before we reach the limit and cross the boundary. And why the Sermon on the Mount, which brings together much of Jesus’ wisdom and guidance, begins as it does with his Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1–12). ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, the pure in heart, the humble, the merciful, the peacemakers’, because the way we regard God and other people affects the way we live. Those who welcome God’s blessing discover how to regulate life so that their whole world flourishes. They put law in the service of order.
I wonder if this approach helps us to understand one of the most difficult parts of Jesus’ teaching, on divorce and re-marriage. In his day a married woman was her husband’s property. Divorce meant abandoning her and making her destitute, unless another man married her. But that would be adultery, because she still belonged to her former husband. The only exception was ‘unchastity’, not being a virgin when she was married, in which case she could be sent back to her father’s household. Jesus’ teaching on divorce and re-marriage served the wise ordering of society by protecting women from abuse and destitution. Again Jesus’ teaching puts law in the service of order. How does this spirit inform the rules we make today around sexuality, marriage and divorce?
Jesus’ approach to the law of Moses is challenging because he looks for a degree of integrity that is often beyond us. ‘Let your word be “Yes, Yes” or “No, No”’ (Matthew 5:37) may be more than we can manage. That’s one reason why we should never lose sight of where the laws of Moses and Jesus begin: with the promise of God to bless and renew; with the grace of a new creation.