It was a metaphor; not intended to be taken literally.:doh:
Do you read the Bible like that?
Besides, I still feel I was correct in my appraisal that you are presenting contradictory ideas (evidence below).
We shall see.
These statements above are contradictory. Either “He expects us to be obedient to the law” or “we are not expected to keep the law.”
Stop ignoring what I've actually said.
He desires us to do what is right; even expects us to. However, He does not expect us to be capable of always doing what is right; He knows we will sometimes fail, which is why Christ died in the first place, because we can't be perfect without Him.
Love is love. It doesn’t matter why we love as long as it is genuine love. If we genuinely love because God tells us to (i.e. “obey the law”), it’s still genuine love. If we genuinely love because it’s right, it’s still genuine love. And whether we love out of obedience to the law or because it is right—which sounds like the same thing to me, anyway—when we love, we obey the law.
Nope. I don't love because I'm told to. It's not an obligation. I do it because He first loved me, and that love pours out from me.
And yet even when I don't feel like it, even when I hate someone, I still love them. Why? Not because God demands it, but because I should. And it is only through Him that I can do so, because left to my own devices I could not love those I hated.
Cool. So what do you think Paul means by us not being under the law, considering he tells us that we should obey God’s law? God, through Paul, commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves (Rom. 13:8-11; Gal. 5:13-14). We are told that we are to owe no one anything, but we are expected to love one another because this fulfills the law. So, in essence, we are expected to obey and fulfill the law through our love for one another. Yet, we are not under the law. What does it mean to not be under the law and still obey it through love?
That is not Paul telling us to obey the law. The law, while based on the idea that love perpetuates these actions, never commanded, nor even required, us to love anyone. Paul is telling us, as Jesus said, that if we love God and one another then we will do the things in the law as a result.
You don't think the law is written in our heart? I believe it is...the Royal Law of Love from which all the law and prophets hang.
Why would something which we are not under be written on our hearts?
Colossians 2:10-12
And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
And here you have shown something at the core of the issue, we are not required to keep the law, for not only are we not required to be physically circumcised but to be so profits us absolutely nothing in our relationship with God.
I think Paul explains how we are not under the PENALTY of the Law. The Law, itself, is the standard for all righteousness. We keep it fully through loving God and our neighbor as ourselves.
Romans 7:12
Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
No, God is the standard of righteousness. The law was a guideline, and a tutor, nothing more.
And none of us keep the law to the fullest extent, anyway. We are not all physically circumcised, and those who are usually are not so because of the law. We do not observe the Sabbath. We eat pork and shellfish. Shall I go on?
