Our principle of action is love, not keeping laws. Jews tried to keep laws for justification, but that was futile, for none can be justified by law. That principle of action is what Paul was emphasizing in the passage above and many others also. When we let love guide our decisions, we fulfill the purposes that God was seeking to promote by the Ten Commandments, the entire Law of Moses, and the prophets. Those who are seeking to do the loving thing do not need a list of arbitrary laws to follow.
Traffic laws are definite so that infractions are easily detected.
Strict observance of traffic laws is commendable under ordinary circumstances, but not when it shows lack of love and concern for your dying child. Keeping the letter of the law would be simplistic, but fulfilling the principle of the laws would demand discernment. Arbitrary Laws Efforts to follow arbitrary laws concerning marriage, divorce, and remarriage do not lead to the higher expressions of love, nor do they find definitive answers to all of the legalistic questions we raised in our previous lesson. Couples can be held together in miserably failed marriages because of belief in arbitrary law when the principle of action has long-since vanished. Demands of law cannot create or sustain love in a marriage.