In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome. – 1 John 5:3

Today's Scripture Reading (May 26, 2021): 1 John 5

One of the criticisms that have emerged out of the racial dance occurring in the United States is that the law, as it is currently written, is for the protection of white people. Now, admittedly, I am a Caucasian male, so the law is for my benefit by definition. If that is true, then it should be a red warning sign telling us that something is dreadfully wrong. If the law places a different burden on different groups of people, then it cannot be good. I also strongly believe in the adage that justice is blind. It has to be. It cannot see race or gender, it does not know religion or sexual orientation, and if it does, it is not just. Any law that benefits one race over another, or one economic class over another, is corrupt. And therefore, it is a law that must be torn down to its foundation and rebuilt.

This is precisely the discussion that is taking place in our culture. "Defund the Police" is an unfortunate battle cry in the fight because, for some, it sounds like an invitation to societal anarchy. But that is not really what we mean. What we want is for the police to be expanded and made more diverse. We want the police to include social workers and psychologists. The argument behind "Defund the Police" is that not every problem requires the same hammer, in this case, a gun. Different issues require a different set of tools. And, unfortunately, the police seem to be monolithic; they exist with only one set of tools, one gun, to fix all of our societal ills.

But the bigger problem is the law itself. If it is for the protection of the Caucasian, then it doesn't matter how we shape the police because the law itself is an issue. And before we can fix it, we need to understand what the law is supposed to do.

The law in any society should protect the people, all of the people. It is not supposed to be a burden; the law is written for our protection. No one, not even the police, should have a right to make our lives harder or to instill fear. No one has a right to cause injury or death to someone else. The law exists to put a layer of protection around us and to keep us relatively healthy. The only things that should be illegal are things that cause us harm or hold us back from being the best we can be.

The unfortunate reality is that human law seldom does any of these things. Our national laws benefit the rich over the poor, the powerful over those without power, one race over others, and sometimes one religious group over another. And all of this makes the law illegal.

The author of Hebrews says that God's law is not burdensome. The intent of the words is not that the law is easy, allowing us to do whatever we want, but that it exists for our protection, to make our lives better. It is something of which human laws consistently fall short. The laws of the Pharisees were so intrusive that they made life harder, and unless you were able to devote your life to law, you could not keep the law. But that was not the way that God's law was designed. God's law was not burdensome, and therefore it could be done as our response of love to God.  

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 & 3 John