Dear friend,
Often people think there was a tremendous switch in what God wanted between the Old Testament and the New, but God has always wanted love. The end purpose of the New Testament is precisely the same as the end purpose of the Old: love for God and love for the neighbour. But I think both under the Old Testament and under the New, multitudes of God’s people lost sight of the real objective and became very confused and uncertain. What changed between the Old Testament and the New was not God’s objective, but the means to achieve the objective.
The Law failed to achieve this objective, not because there was anything wrong with the Law, as Paul is very careful to point out, but because there is something wrong with human nature. This is stated by Paul in Romans 8, verse 3:
“For what the Law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, [of man] God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.” (NIV)
The Law couldn’t do it because of the weakness of sinful man. God had to make a sacrifice that dealt with man’s sin in his weakness, removed this obstacle and permitted the love of God generated by the new birth to flow through the people who had been born again.
In 1 Timothy chapter 1, verses 5-7, Paul states the objective of the gospel message and ministry as clearly as it could be stated:
“But the goal of our instruction is love [Notice that! The goal of our instruction as ministers of the gospel is love. And then he lays down certain basic requirements for love: three] from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. [Those are three things that are needed if we are to have the kind of love that God wants in our lives: a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith. These are produced by the gospel. But the end is love. And then Paul goes on to say:] For some men, straying from these things, [that’s love out of a pure heart, and a good conscience and a sincere faith] have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions.” (NASB)
If we ever turn aside in our teaching or our ministry from the ultimate objective of producing God’s love in the lives of the people to whom we minister, all we end up with is fruitless discussion. The King James Version uses a very vivid phrase, "vain jangling". Our preaching, our ministry, our activities just become a lot of empty noise. They accomplish nothing of permanent value.
For reflection and prayer
The Law is incapable of producing love.
