Philosophy (especially from the Age of Reason) refers to the concept of “Natural Law”, a set of rules that govern all existence.
By logical deduction, any Christian automatically believes in this Natural Law:
- There are scientific realities about the universe that God made.
- God has formed animals and people with certain universal characteristics.
- We all have aspects of ourselves that don’t move, such as the mechanisms for how we perceive, our tendencies to identify stories, and our generally political nature.
One divergence Christians make from secular philosophers, though, is that our sin nature means we don’t always want to honor Natural Law. We can often profit much more in the short term by breaking those rules (1 Corinthians 3:19), and we make unhealthy agreements with unholy beings in the process.
God knew this would happen beforehand, though, so He created security measures to protect His rules. It’s why evil people typically receive some sort of comeuppance, moral people typically have easier lives (Proverbs 3), and God’s laws still typically create a fair society, even when profoundly diluted.
Thus, since God is not physically present right now, we have a temporary situation: the “Unnatural Law”.
Natural Law is relatively easy to understand, as evidenced by my dissertation of what Jesus’ reign will probably look like after 100 years:
- Loving others as oneself is best for everyone when everyone does it at once, which makes the entire community benefit.
- Love who a person is, not what they do.
- The stronger are responsible to assist the weaker in the group/Body, so nobody has any shortage of things they need.
- When someone fails, everyone is there to support and encourage that person, with their specific God-given abilities.
- Every person is important because they were made by God and loved by Him.
- Wisdom and truth are critical to making any of the above possible.
Unnatural Law is the fixed laws of God, mixed with our souls’ relatively predictable decay from sin:
- Loving others is risky, but loving yourself is safe, so the safest form of love is for the self.
- Love what you are, but then do things to show the rest of the world why you’re worthy of others’ love.
- The strong will always prevail, and the weak will serve them.
- If someone ever fails, they should be publicly humiliated as a means of motivating everyone to do better.
- Every person matters proportionally to what they can create.
- Shrewdness (the appearance of wisdom) and an image of truth are critical to making any of the above possible.
Basically, while Natural Law is constantly concerned with the ethical question of “What is the most loving thing to do?” while Unnatural Law is concerned with “What will give me the most power?”
While we live in this world, we must be wise, which means understanding the temporary system we live in.
- Many parts of society are highly dysfunctional, and we must learn to practice good boundaries and appropriately resolve conflicts.
- Scoped out, the entire hierarchy of self-interest arranges itself into the myth of Babylon: a pyramid structure where everyone takes from the people below them, enslaving the bottom ranks in the process while clawing for God’s position.
This doesn’t directly create any eternal benefit, but is absolutely critical for us to maintain enough power to accomplish the purposes we push for (Matthew 10:16):
- Spreading the Gospel message via evangelism.
- Making disciples in our communities and church.
- Running various ministries, which all require money and power management.
Since Natural and Unnatural Law conform to different uses, we can effectively divide people into 4 broad classes of mindset:
- Natural with Unnatural: shrewd, successful people who are very loving, but also not easily exploited
- Natural without Unnatural: moral people who are easy to exploit
- Unnatural without Natural: shrewd, successful people who are evil
- Neither Unnatural nor Natural: awful, self-destructive people who destroy those around them
And, naturally, this creates some implications:
- The existence of Class 4 people means the only people who should run the Church should be Class 1.
- When Class 2 people run the Church, Class 3 people can often intervene to make good things turn to evil purposes.
- Except for God’s direct intervention and Class 1 people, there will always be a class divide, and everything will descend into chaos if given enough time.
Of course, this shrewdness isn’t necessary once Jesus returns, so it’s only a temporary tactical problem, and the Holy Spirit can give us that insight and protection through several possible avenues:
- Direct revelation within our spirits.
- Well-placed connections with believers who have that necessary shrewdness.
- Miraculous events that migrate those people out of your life.
So, it’s in every Christian’s interest to either work on their shrewdness, or work on their gentleness (Matthew 10:16).
- Interestingly, many Christians’ shrewdness will develop naturally, and that is likely the Holy Spirit’s work.