What’s the law all about? A supposed expert in the law asked Jesus that very question. Jesus boiled it all down to ‘love’. He quoted from two places in the Old Testament: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” (Deuteronomy 6:5) […]
I’ll never forget when Mark told me he was HIV positive. We were in a cafe in London and had just ordered all day breakfasts. Many of us had tried to help him off the streets and off the drugs but he’d finally succumbed to a dirty needle. He had quite a few scabs on […]
When we think of a “peace offering” we think of guilty husbands hastily purchasing flowers. Or meek penitents bringing gifts to their fuming friends. The one giving the peace offering is feeling dreadful. The one to whom the offering is made is tapping their foot saying “This better be good.” And maybe, just maybe, they […]
How long does it take a nation to fall away from its spiritual heritage? Well in Exodus 32 it’s been 50 days since the Israelites had arrived at the foot of Mount Sinai. They had been redeemed from slavery, brought through the Red Sea and carried by the Angel of God on eagle’s wings. He […]
“An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind” said Gandhi. Not quite. “Two eyes for an eye” might do it. Or “an eye for an eye for an eye” might. But “an eye for an eye” was an upper limit of retribution set down in law explicitly forbidding the escalation of violence. […]
It’s interesting to read modern alternatives to the Ten Commandments. Their silence on the subject of God is deafening. Few people today see God as having anything to do with the “Good Life.” Maybe that’s not surprising. But what’s also consistently absent are expectations about family commitments. In fact committed relationships of any kind are […]
No-one likes the phrase “laying down the law.” But that’s what the unseen LORD does on mount Sinai. God the Son has brought the people to God the Father and now they learn the law of the LORD. The order is important. They’re not told in Egypt “If you obey my commands I will redeem […]
