The First Use of the Law

# 13 Today's Prime Time Devo comes from: 1Ti 1:5-8, “Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, 6 from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, 7 desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. 8 But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, (1 Tim 1:5-8) Paul's beef with these self-proclaimed teachers was their mishandling of the Law (the dos and don'ts of God's Word.) There are three generally accepted uses of the Law of God, and it's important that we understand what they are, for in understanding them, we are then able to use the Law, lawfully. Those three uses are: (1) to restrain evil, (2) to show us our sinfulness and therefore drive us to Christ. (3) To show us how to live God-pleasing lives. The sum of the ten commandments according to Jesus was to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Let's talk about each one of these uses: First of all, the restraint of evil. Did you know that every person created by God has His Law in their heart? Ro 2:14,15 says, “ for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, 15 who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) These dos and dont's are there for believers and unbelievers alike! But more often than not are buried under layers of indifference, cultural mores, and sin. As we look around our world today and in our land we see evil becoming more and more unrestrained. One of the reasons this is happening is the tool used for the restraint of evil (the Ten Commandments) have been removed from the public square. Those commandments serve as a reminder to all who read them of the Law that God has written on their heart, and without consciously being aware of it are capable of restraining the evil that also resides in the heart. Without these reminders, the downward spiral of evil will continue. No wonder the devil and his dupes are so adamant about removing them from our schools and the public square.