A Dash of Encouragement

When we follow Yaweh's laws we walk in perfect blessing. It's when we deviate from His intended desire for us that we become injured, harmed, wounded, or defeated. All the pain in the world is because of our choices, not our chances.

2 Cor 3:6"He has made us competent as ministers of a renewed covenant--not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."

I think this means not to use the law to sin.

For example, do not refuse to work on the Sabbath if you are a doctor and someone in your home is having a heart attack.

Another example: Picture a 16 year old reprimanded by their parents and sent to their room being told not come out "until you were ready to repent" because their behavior caused distress in the house. Let's say the parents leave the home to run an errand and while they are gone a younger sibling needed assistance disabling the security system that was was going off for no important reason. If the code isn't entered properly, the police would come and the parents would have to pay a fine, The 16 year old knew the code but the younger sibling does not. The 16 year old, aware of the calamity occurring, remains in their room being "obedient to the letter." The police come resulting in an expensive fine. The parents return, see the penalty they now owe and ask the 16 year old why they didn't enter the code, as doing so would have prevented them from getting the fine. The 16 year old smiles rebelliously inside and says; "Well, you told me not to come out until I was ready to repent. I wasn't quite ready and I did not want to break the law you set for me."

Here someone "obeyed the letter" but caused the very thing they were being reprimanded for (distress in the home). By "following the letter" they were disregarding the spirit in which the mitzvah was given.....which was meant to solve the problem of contributing distressing behaviours, not add to it.

"Technically" they obeyed to the letter but sinned in that "obedience" because they used the letter of the law to be wicked and harm others.

That is false obedience.

This is how I see this concept in context with the whole of the Bible. This text in no way pits the law of the Torah against the "spirit of the Torah." They go together. It is only when they are separated on either side that there is a problem.

Hoping this nugget of encouragement is helpful. Shalom!