Law is Needed Up to a Certain Point
H. W. Beecher., Bishop Lightfoot., B. Jowett, M. A., Canon Knox-Little. Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Wings would help me; but angels do not need wings — though painters have represented them as having wings. An angel, according to our conception, is one that can lift itself up, and move hither and thither, by its own spontaneity. In proportion as men have these thoughts, in proportion as they live by the force of them, they do not need the wings, the feet, the helps, the schoolmasters, the directors, the wardens, that laws are. Laws are simply aids to weak folks, to tell them where to go, to help them to go, and to make them remember the next time if they do not go. Laws are men's servants; and they are servants which serve them in that way. But if a man has a direct inspiration of God; or if his culture has gone so high that he does not need these external stimulants; or ii he has another sphere of influences which lead him to the same things from a higher point of view, the lower ones drop, not because they are wrong, but because the man is doing the Same things better by a different set of instruments. Therefore it is that there is no law to some men. A man who needs a law is yet a child. There is not one man in a hundred who ever does live by the laws of the land that he is in. We do not live by the laws of our land. You do not know one quarter of the laws that are on our statute. books. A virtuous and honest man does not need to know what the laws are. The greatest proportion of men live and die without hearing once in all their life a tenth or a hundredth part of the laws that pertain to good conduct. They do right of their own accord, and therefore the law has no force on them. So it is in respect to true manly living. As far as a real, upright man goes, he goes voluntarily. He does from spontaneity and from choice what men lower down do from necessity, or from fear of punishment. The consequence is that men live toward freedom in proportion as they live toward fidelity. (H. W. Beecher.)Law exists for the purpose of restraint, but in the works of the Spirit there is nothing to restrain. (Bishop Lightfoot.)Law neither prohibits nor enjoins Christian graces, which belong to a different sphere. (B. Jowett, M. A.)Whether with regard to the fruits of the earth there may be a natural law, whether it be true of the natural creation that by the force of law the seasons may fail, the rain be too heavy, or the sun too slight, it can be boldly said that against the fruit of the Spirit there can be no law. (Canon Knox-Little.) Parallel Verses KJV: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, WEB: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,