Of Light, Lawyers, and Legalese
As I have sat in courtrooms numerous times in the last number of years, I have been dully depressed by the legal maneuvering to try and reduce or mitigate the penalties for those who are guilty, or even to try and throw out the guilt of a party, simply because the prosecution had made a slight mistake in the process of convicting them. I realize that in this world of earthly laws, and no accountability to God’s moral standards, these “checks and balances” are needed to prevent abuse of authority, but I question what role they play in the Christian’s walk In Jesus day, they had the same problem. Some people felt that if you swore by the gold of the temple, you had to keep your word and tell the truth. But if you only swore by the temple itself, then you had “legal wiggle room” to fudge your testimony. Jesus strictly condemned this, and says clearly, let your ‘yes’ mean yes, and your ‘no’ mean no! And then he adds this phrase in Matthew 5:36 “for w...