Philosophy from the Greeks onward refers to the concept of “Natural Law”, a set of rules that govern all existence. And, by logical deduction, any Christian automatically believes in this Natural Law since God made it.
Against God
Among the differences in beliefs that frame Christians’ views against the world’s, they believe in our sinful nature. This creates a severe conflict:
- Natural Law exists.
- We don’t always want to honor Natural Law.
- We have a history of violating Natural Law, especially if it can serve our interests.
This worldly wisdom is foolishness to God, even when we profit in the short term (1 Corinthians 3:19). History and the current state of society show we will make unhealthy agreements for the purpose of personal gain.
God’s incomplete system
God isn’t stupid, and knew this would happen beforehand. For that reason, He designed security measures to protect His rules:
- God planned for false teachers to corrupt His simple Gospel message (2 Peter 2).
- Even evil beings and institutions, including the devil, are effectively tools for God’s purposes (Romans 8:28).
- On further inspection, God designed nature’s systems to withstand misuse and abuse, and the environment self-heals. Bacteria eat hydrocarbons and have cleared oil spills such as BP’s and Exxon Valdez. Microorganisms under the earth have cleaned nuclear fallout sites such as Chornobyl. This means the cult of scientism vastly overstates the risks of man-made climate change.
The results are clearly obvious for a general case:
- Evil people typically receive some sort of comeuppance from God in this life (Romans 12:19).
- Moral people typically have easier lives (Proverbs 3).
- God’s laws typically create a fair society, even when profoundly diluted.
And yet, reality seems to demonstrate something else:
- Evil people still do prosper for long periods, sometimes living long and comparatively comfortable lives.
- Victims aren’t indemnified.
- Most of the world’s leaders are bullies and narcissists.
This doesn’t mean God isn’t present or being slow. He is simply patient to bring everyone possible to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
However, God is not physically present right now, and we don’t directly witness His justice sweeping across everyone at once. This creates a temporary situation: the “Unnatural Law”.
Uncomfortable stability
Natural Law, as applied to society, is easy to understand:
- Every person is important because God made them and loves them (Psalm 139:13).
- We are all to love others like ourselves.
- When everyone loves others sacrificially, the entire community benefits.
- Our love for others should be in who they are, not in what they do.
- In all bodies of people, the stronger are responsible for assisting the weaker, and this eradicates most scarcity.
- When someone fails, everyone will be there to support and encourage that person through their specific God-given abilities.
- Wisdom, truth, and continual sacrifice make all of the above possible.
Unnatural Law, by contrast, commingles God’s fixed laws with the corrupting effects of our souls’ sins:
- Every person matters proportionally to what they can create.
- Loving others is risky, but loving yourself is safe, so the safest form of love is for the self.
- When anyone loves others sacrificially, at least some of the community will exploit it.
- Love what you are. Do things to show the rest of the world why you’re worth everyone else loving you.
- The strong will always prevail, and the weak will serve them. With enough submission, only the lowest-ranking will experience scarcity.
- When someone fails, everyone should publicly humiliate them. This serves as an example for others to do better, but also deflects attention from other issues.
- Shrewdness (the appearance of wisdom), an image of truth, and calculated sacrifice make any of the above possible.
Scoped out, Unnatural Law’s hierarchy of self-interest is the pyramid-shaped myth of Babylon. Effectively, everyone takes from people below them and enslaves the bottom ranks while clawing for God’s position.
We can most easily distinguish Natural and Unnatural Law by whether we’re focusing on what’s most loving or most empowering. That power can be through other terms like results, realism, practical effects, standing, and strategic advantage.
Inevitable conflict
This world is irreparably broken. Therefore, it can’t live by Natural Law even if it wanted to. (Romans 8:6-8).
Being a believer in this world means having wisdom, which means understanding at least some Unnatural Law:
- Jesus heavily engaged with the various sinners of His time. This means He would have been aware of at least some of their lifestyles (Matthew 9:10-13).
- Further, in the same way, Jesus commissions believers to be in the world, but not of the world (John 17:15-18).
- Many parts of society are highly dysfunctional. In response, God has commanded believers to practice good boundaries and be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9).
Therefore, believers need a certain bare minimum of street smarts. This is to manage power wisely for God’s purposes (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.
Pushing against the world
God uses all this trouble as a necessary trial to show who is righteous (1 Corinthians 11:18-19). This situation will last our lifetimes, but it’s only a temporary tactical problem until Jesus returns.
Since Christians won’t specialize in learning the world’s ways, they have a high chance of falling into very hairy situations:
- As sheep, they wander into bigger trouble than if they had been wolves (Matthew 10:16).
- They experience real-life moral thought experiments where they must make the most loving decision. This will often oppose the world’s advice.
- Whatever they decide, and however far they wander, God will still act out His will.
- However the situation presents itself, God will get the credit for redeeming His people.
This world will pressure us to work more on our shrewdness. However, there isn’t any eternal benefit for us to know the details of what this world is doing.
Instead, Christians will make more gains by working toward gentleness and meekness (Matthew 10:16). Then, they should trust the Holy Spirit’s work for whatever happens.
If we trust Him, the Holy Spirit has several possible avenues to fix our problem:
- Direct revelation within our spirits that supersedes worldly wisdom (Matthew 10:19).
- Well-timed connections with others who know exactly how to fix our problem.
- Miraculous events that give answers, opportunities, or put away risks.
Of course, how it happens and what God uses is anyone’s guess, and we must simply trust Him.
Eventually, His Natural Law will prevail, but it will be pretty lousy until then (Romans 8:22).