Laws Are Necessary in Our Fallen World, Yet We Can’t Ignore God

Will passing stricter laws in this country effectively reduce the problem of evil, or is there a better way?

For example, are stricter laws for weapon purchases the best way to prevent senseless tragedies?

Related: Urgent Question: Does God Have an Answer for the Tragedies?

Or how about more laws against alcohol and drugs — will these most effectively reduce addiction?

Is the problem really about those specific items — or is it about the heart of the person about to use any of them?

Laws are necessary, to be sure, in this fallen world.

However, if we believe that the law is the primary way to solve the problem of evil, then we are completely ignoring the elephant in the room.

The inanimate object isn’t the evil. It’s the heart that is committing the evil deed.

Why, then, do we run from the only One who cares about our heart so much that He paid the ultimate price to heal us?

Short answer: Modern society is completely swayed by the pop cultural delusion that God is an old-fashioned, boring, backward, stuffy, senile old dude who prevents us from living a happy and enlightened life.

Thus, we turn our backs on God — who is love — and find we must embrace the law as our savior from evil.

Jesus said the two greatest laws are: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew‬ ‭22:37-39‬).

All the other laws — that is, the “thou shalt nots” — point us toward our need for love.

Christ said He came to “fulfill the law,” and He did so by living in perfect love (Matthew 5:17-18).

If the greatest law is love, and God is love, then shouldn’t we focus most of our energy into living like Jesus instead of pouring our passion into passing more laws that the lawless won’t obey anyway?

The Apostle Paul wrote, “Understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers” (1 Timothy‬ ‭1:9‬).

So the Bible’s reasoning brings us full circle now: If the greatest law is love, and God is love, then shouldn’t we focus most of our energy into living like Jesus instead of pouring our passion into passing more laws that the lawless won’t obey anyway?

Related: ‘My Life Can Be God’s Beautiful Garden, or It Can Be a Useless Patch of Weeds’

Sweeping new legal reforms will not change even one heart. But a heart swept away by God’s love can “turn the world upside down” (Acts 17:6).

Jesus died for love, and His heartbeat echoes through the millennia of history.

When we know God, we live in the law of love: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John‬ ‭4:7-8‬).