The Letter and The Spirit of the Law

by BlogSpotThinker
October 9, 2011

The Bible appears to point out the potential for negative human intent to seek ways to obey the “letter of the law” while not submitting to the “spirit of the law”. The term “letter of the law” here refers to the specific commands or prohibitions specified by a guideline. The term “spirit of the law” here refers to the perspective from which a guideline emanates.

The Bible appears to suggest that the subset of humanity that is referred to in this light attempts to avoid the negative consequences of non-compliance with guidelines. However, their perspective does not appropriately balance genuine concern for self-interest, the well-being of others and other aspects of life. This appears to suggest that their actions are solely symptoms of the fundamental problem: the general perspective from which those actions flow. The Bible appears to suggest that such imbalanced perspective is a direct result of humanity’s rejection of God’s leadership.

I humbly and respectfully submit that the Bible appears to suggest that knowledge of and compliance with guidelines is not the ultimate goal. Submission to God’s sovereign leadership and the resulting “renewing of our minds” (Romans 12:2) into harmony with God’s design range for human perspective appears to be. Otherwise, the ultimate loophole – rewriting the laws to allow the imbalanced perspective to be considered appropriate – appears to present itself.