Conversational Prayer-Sonnets and Scriptures
November 27 ~
... those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man ... The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked ... the law in itself is holy, and the commandment in itself is holy, just and good ... In my inmost self I delight in the law of God, but I perceive that there is in my bodily members a different law, fighting against the law my reason approves ... making me a prisoner under ... the law of sin ...
Matt.15:18,19,20 (KJV); Jer.17:9 (KJV); Rom.7:12 (Bar); 7:22,23 (NEB).
Oxymora - 4: You Cannot Legislate Morality*
You cannot legislate Morality ...
¾
the strangest oxymoron of them all!
Lo! jurisprudence doth itself naught be
but moral codes enacted into Law
whereby the social soul doth regulate
its own inherent dark proclivities
t'ward lawlessness: oppose the constant spate
of libertine illiberalities
which pour into the godless heart of man
and which, lest checked, his actions will decide.
Thus thence the Law! --
by which Tradition's stand
is anchored: morals spelled and fortified.
Slay the restraints? Make License Liberty?
Not Law but Despotism thou'lt soon see!
_______________________
... sin is lawlessness ... We know, of course, that the Law is good in itself and has a legitimate function. Yet we also know that the Law is not really meant for the good man, but for the man who has neither principles nor self-control, for the man who is really wicked, who has neither scruples nor reverence. Yes, the Law is directed against the sort of people who attack their own parents, who kill their fellows, who are sexually uncontrolled or perverted, or who traffic in the bodies of others ... liars and perjurers --
in fact it is against any ... action which contradicts the wholesome teaching of the glorious gospel which our blessed God has given ...
1 Jn.3:4 (RSV); 1 Tim.1:8-11,12 (JBP).
* See March 20, March 21, March 22, and November 30 for Oxymora 1, 2, 3 and 5.
Christ -The Better Way Home Page / Devotional Contents Page / Calendar Table for Devotions / Index of Devotions by Title