Today’s Lenten Word Meditation comes from Romans 2:12-24 NRSV:
12All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified.14When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. 15They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them 16on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all.
17But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of your relation to God 18and know his will and determine what is best because you are instructed in the law, 19and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth, 21you, then, that teach others, will you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? 22You that forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You that abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23You that boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? 24For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”The word, law (nomos in Greek), is defined as a law or rule producing a state approved of God. In this passage, Paul is criticising those who know what is right and good, but does the opposite.
This morning I sit, hold, and pray with the word, law. Jesus condenses all the laws to 2 commandments: love God and love each other. I sometimes wonder if I am like his male disciples who follow Jesus thinking he will overthrow the Roman Empire and become King of Israel. I can’t imagine what Jesus is going through trying to teach his followers the “new” laws of love while heading to the Cross. Do his male disciples truly love him or love the idea of him? Do I truly love Jesus or love the idea of Jesus?
Pastor Sam
