Dear Friend,

“Love is a better teacher than a sense of duty, at least for me”—so said Albert Einstein after being exposed to Mozart’s sonatas. He was studying violin at the time, and fell in love with Mozart. He reminded me of the author of the 119th Psalm who cried: “Oh! How love I thy law.” It also brought to mind the rather juvenile approach, “I obey God because I want to, not because I have to.”

I wish I had fallen in love with the piano, but I lacked the discipline to learn enough to fall in love. If Einstein had not reached a level of competence through duty, one wonders if he would ever have discovered the beauty of Mozart. My piano teacher lacked the ability to create in me a love for self-expression on the piano. She had no passion for it, and was unable to create the passion in me.

If you are like me, you probably had a very small handful of teachers who had a passion for their subject. I should say that, if you were lucky, you had that small handful.

It is a quirk of human nature that we don’t like to do as we are told. Adam and Eve were just fine with a hundred trees in the Garden of Eden, but there was one tree they were to leave strictly alone. However, they went straight to that tree and ate, when they could have eaten of the tree of life and lived forever. We are still paying for that mistake.

When you begin reading through the Bible, it isn’t long before you come up against the Law of God. It might be helpful to recall the quirk of human nature that doesn’t like to be told what to do. One thing about the Law of God that is not well understood is that, for the most part, compliance is entirely voluntary. There are exceptions when you enter society. The law prohibiting murder was not voluntary, and the civil authority could take the murderer’s life. But laws such as, “You shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the corn” were purely voluntary. There were no animal rights people enforcing this law.

Tithing is the Law of God, but compliance is voluntary. I don’t see anything like the IRS in biblical law. So you can actually look at the Law of God and decide to do it or not do it. Why, then, would you obey it?

Years ago, I found a book about stocks by Justin Mamis titled When to Sell. I studied it diligently. I drew charts and graphs and measured the movement of stocks trying to time the moment to sell. In the process I learned something that an experienced investor could have told me. Most people who try to time the market end up buying high and selling low. This is not the recommended method of investing.

Maybe, I thought, I am not buying at the right time. So I bought the same author’s book When to Buy. I still ended up buying high and selling low. So I abandoned the stock market and invested in real estate instead. I decided to experiment with selling those two books on Ebay. The bidding ended, much to my astonishment, at $15. I still feel guilty about that, because I am certain they didn’t work any better for that guy than they did for me.

Why am I telling you all this? The reason is simple. In investing, you always do better where you have an edge. It may be that your edge is in knowledge of a given business.

What would it be worth if there was a book for sale that gave you an edge in everything you do? In life itself? Would you buy it? Well, as it happens, there is such a book, and by now you have figured out that I am talking about the Bible in general, and the Law of God in particular.

I could go on, but I would rather you listen to the message I presented recently titled Love and Law. Use the audio player below to listen, or just click here to download it.

Yours in Christ’s Service,

Ronald L. Dart

PS. If you like this message, you’ll love the book Law & Covenant. It is available from Amazon.com or from our offices with a phone call. As always, Love and Law is free, but your donation will surely help.