My prime reason to read law was to gain the legal reasoning and to train myself up in logical and analytical arguments. I have been enjoying it. However, as I am going through the courses, I feel more and more that the world is very subjective and there is just no sense that there should be any judgment by the court. It's just getting meaningless.
This coupled with what I have been reading on 1 Corinthians 4 and 6, Paul also discouraged people to go to the court to settle matters (1 Corinthians 6:1-11). In fact, Paul said,
"3 I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. 4My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 5Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God" (1 Corinthians 4:3-5)
It is very common to fall into the trap of judging people around us. I think even so for Christians. We hold onto the Word of God, we follow what the Bible says. There are truely things that are stated very clearly in the Bible of what to do and what not to do. But there are still many things that the Bible did not say explicitly. That's when we as Christians try to judge and sometimes take the Bible verses out of context to apply to the particular situation. But who are we to judge? Justice to one may not be justice to another. Anyway, we will not be able to understand the different sides of the stories and make a fair judgment. There can never be a fair judgment by us. There are three courts before which we stand:
People;
Our own conscience;
Jesus Christ.
We can deceive people, deceive ourselves but we can never deceive God and it's His judgment that matters.
However, just as I was so discouraged by the subjectivity of law, I realised that the subjectivity can still be put into good use. Paul says,
"'Everything is permissible for me'-but not everything is beneficial. 'Everything is permissible for me' - but I will not be mastered by anything" (1 Corinthians 6:12).
Then I read a guide on the Bible which has commented as follows:
"A man was walking down the street swinging his arms out from his chest and, by mistake, struck a passerby in the face. The man struck was furious and started to strike the man back. 'Hey, isn't this a free country? Can't a fellow do his exercises on the street if he wishes?'
'Yes,' was the answer, 'but remember where my nose begins, your liberty ends.'"
It's true that we have the liberty to do many things, as Paul has put it. And we cannot really judge others as simple as we think. But liberty does not mean recklessness. If our liberty harms another, then our liberty has gone too far. We are not to judge people, especially with the little rules that the Scripture has laid down. Perhaps it's better to think of it from another angle and to remind our brothers and sisters and ourselves that whether what we do will harm the weaker Christians, who will use our conduct as an example. We do not live on this world alone. Our conduct does affect others. By not being a stumbling block to our weaker brothers and sisters in Christ, we are glorifying God. This is also echoed in 1 Corinthians 8:9-13.
This concept of "liberty not Recklessness" parallels with one principle that I learnt in law: even though we all have human rights, our rights end as far as our rights infringe on others' freedom. For example, the freedom of speech ends when we are defaming people; our freedom to assemble ends when we disrupt public order. So, law helps to remind me of some important principles of life, helps me to understand the Bible from another perspective. It's useful.
Anna
