Principle Study Center

“The distinction between the general abstract formula of moral law, and the living, personal, concrete manifestation of God’s Will in our own lives is one of the most fundamental truths of Christianity, for it is the distinction of the letter, which kills, and the spirit which gives life. Jesus who came not to destroy the law but in order that every jot and tittle of the law should be fulfilled (Matthew 5:17-18), also taught that in order for the law to be fulfilled the doctors of the law should be confounded.

The justice of the scribes, who perfectly understood the letter of the law, was not sufficient to gain anyone admittance into the Kingdom of Heaven. It was necessary for the law to be fulfilled in spirit and in truth. It was necessary that men should be perfect in the law, not by the exterior observance of precepts but by the interior transformation of their whole being into sons of God. Then they would be children of their Father in Heaven, perfect as He is perfect (Matthew 5:45-48). They would no longer keep the law with a formalistic perfection that defeated the whole purpose of the law, but they would realize that the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.”

-No Man Is an Island by Thomas Merton

Tags: Bible, Christianity, God, God's Will, Heaven, morals, No Man Is An Island, perfection, sabbath, spirituality, Thomas Merton, transformation, Truth

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