An old Calvin and Hobbes comic strip showed Calvin’s mother telling the grubby youngster to go and get into the bathtub. The next frame showed a grinning Calvin sitting in the empty bathtub fully clothed and saying “I obey the letter of the law, if not the spirit.” Like Calvin, most children can be very good at obeying the letter of the law – its exact literal meaning – while avoiding the command’s spirit – its underlying intent – but as adults we don’t always grow out of that approach.
An example of this can be seen in the way in modern Israel some landowners keep the letter of the Old Testament law by not farming their land in the seventh year to let it rest (Leviticus 25:2–4), but they lease out the land for the year and let someone else work it – while they “keep” the law by not working the land. Calvin’s attitude may be true of all of us at times, but we should never underestimate the Christian responsibility to obey the spirit of the law.
In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus interpreted the law of Moses according to the spirit of the law, rather than the letter. While the Mosaic law said we must not murder, Jesus said that extreme and disparaging anger can make us guilty of breaking that law, because it is the same attitude that produces both anger and murder (Matthew 5:21–22). While the Mosaic law said we must not commit adultery, Jesus said to look on a woman lustfully is to commit adultery in the heart (Matthew 5:27–28).
So keeping the letter of the law, but not its spirit and intent, is expressly forbidden by Christ. Most believers understand this basic principle of Christianity, but how do we apply it – how do we know, for example, what other ways a given command of Jesus should be applied in order to keep its spirit and intent? The answer is surprisingly simple.
We should realize that the wording of a law often does not fully cover every possible way in which it should be applied, and we must be willing to look for its intent – the spirit of the law. For instance, as one of the laws given in the Old Testament book of Leviticus states: “Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God” (Leviticus 19:14). Although this law literally only forbids cursing the deaf and causing the blind to stumble, if we think about it, we can see almost endless possible ways in which the spirit of the law can be applied.
The intent of this particular law is not to do anything that takes advantage of, or makes life difficult for, those already dealing with disabilities. For example, the spirit of this law would forbid us to sell inferior goods to a blind individual that we know we would not be able to sell to a sighted person. If we take a little time to think about this law, we will soon see other ways in which it can be applied that fall within the spirit of the law even though they are not included in its literal wording.
This brings us to the simple way in which we discover the spirit of a given law – we must think about it! While that may sound just too simple, it is nevertheless true. That is the difference between Bible reading and meaningful Bible study – between just getting through the Bible as opposed to getting the Bible through us.
We have all read some of the many instances in the Psalms where David speaks of meditating on God’s law (Psalm 1:2; etc. ) – and this is what we must do if we are to ever see its spiritual intent. It is not a question of which laws or commands we must or must not keep today – it is the only way in which we can come to deeply understand the way to truly keep the intent of the whole law, as Jesus said, by loving God and loving others.
We do not try to keep God’s law of love in order to earn salvation, and we will never be able to keep it perfectly in this life – in letter or in spirit (Galatians 5:5). But the more we think on the principles behind the laws of the Old Testament and the standards of behavior that Jesus gave his followers, the more we will see the spiritual intent behind those laws and commands, and the better we will be able to love God and love others as ourselves.
