“All We Need Is Law, Law. Law Is All We Really Need.”

Neither enmity nor indifference can allow us to refuse that righteous care for our neighbor’s (or enemy’s) problems which God requires of us. The only basis for our relationship with other men is God’s law, not our feelings.^[1]

Our Lord said that the two greatest commandments are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to then love our neighbor as ourselves. These commands seem simple enough until you ask, “What does it mean to love?”

For modern man, love is first feelings and then action, but the actions have more to do with simple deeds of affection than they do deeds of justice. Our Lord did not say, “Love your spouse or children as yourself,” but rather “love your neighbor,” and once you expand the command beyond family, we’re dealing with the issue of society, i.e., neighbors are not family.

In the age of political correctness, you’re judged for thoughts and feelings more than action. Therefore, a celebrity, journalist, or politician can ruin his career with a single sentence spoken on air or a simple Tweet from his smart phone. If there is the slightest hint of any hot button “social crime,” you could be labeled in a way once stamped the most evil of this world.

What the social controllers want to know is what you think and what you feel. They’re not interested in justice as much as they are enforcing their moral philosophy—a philosophy radically opposed to Biblical law.

Modern Christians are in a dilemma because of this because modern Christianity itself is a religion of feelings where it’s far more important to address how you feel about someone else more so than how you treat them.  Therefore, the great “unifying love” the modern church strives for is in trying to get everyone to “feel good” about each other. However, that is not the Biblical ideal for unity.

What does it mean to love God? Our Lord said it means to “keep His commandments” (John 14:15; c.f., 1 John 2:3). What does it mean then to love our neighbor? It means to obey God’s commandments towards our neighbor, which has nothing to do with feelings. This was Rushdoony’s point in the citation at the top of this article. Loved one or enemy are equally our neighbor, and God’s law is to be applied equally towards both.

If thou meet thine enemy’s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. ~ Exodus 23:4

Today’s secularists aren’t interested in the fact that you helped someone. They want to know how you “feel” about them. God is interested in how you treat someone more so than how you feel about them. God didn’t say to change your feelings about your enemy. He said you must return his ox to him if the animal went astray. Like the poor, enemies you will have with you always, so enacting God’s justice outweighs changing our personal feelings towards others.

The primacy, therefore, is on God’s love, justice, and mercy, and as children of God we must strive to fulfill God’s law to all:

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. ~ Matthew 5:43-45

How can society truly be transformed if the church does not live and teach the authority of God’s law? The world is crying out for justice, but they’re deceived into thinking that justice begins with feelings, not law. The only remedy is repentance, regeneration, and a return to total obedience to God’s commandments. Every social ill is made right by the application of God’s law, and this is the mission of Christian Reconstruction.

The Beatles sang, “All we need is love, love. Love is all we really need,” but without God’s law, there is no love. Without God’s law, men have no way of defining love beyond that of feelings and emotionally driven actions.

Fallen man will not obey God’s laws, so the work needed now is two-fold: gospel preaching to bring men to repentance and teaching theonomy to antinomian Christians. The second aspect is why the ministry of Chalcedon remains a vital one. As a ministry devoted to Christian education, our foremost message is that of the return to God’s law and its application to every area of life. Whereas the unbelievers view us as a source of bigotry, we are in reality a source for a restoration of real love and justice.

If you share our mission, then please consider supporting Chalcedon with your tax-deductible giving. As a Christian, you’ll find satisfaction in knowing that you’re supporting a message and ministry that best represents your Biblical beliefs.

^[1] R. J. Rushdoony, Institutes of Biblical Law (Phillipsburg, PA: P&R Publishing, 1973), p. 247.