Where the Law of God is neglected—and it is neglected almost everywhere in churches today—all the benefits outlined above escape us. No appeal to some vaguely defined “law of love” can take the place in spiritual, moral, and ethical development that the Law of God is intended to fill. God is adamant about this. He warns us in the most severe terms that where men neglect the Law of God, the displeasure of the Lord will not be far away: “If one turns away his ear from hearing the Law, even his prayer is an abomination” (Proverbs 28:9). “So the Law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth” (Habakkuk 1:4). “And since you have forgotten the Law of your God, I also will forget your children” (Hosea 4:6).

To be blunt: The neglect of God’s Law, for the better part of the last two generations, is coming home to roost. Our young people are bailing out on the church, and our prayers that God will rescue them are falling on deaf divine ears.

Why the Law?

Why is the Law of God so important? Let me mention three reasons.

First, the Law of God encodes the path of holiness to which God calls us as His people. This is not an onerous path to walk when we take it up as an expression of gratitude to God for His saving favor and love to God as His adoring children. God promises that when His children walk in the ways of His Law, they will be admired by unbelievers who will defer to them in matters of morality and other kinds of public policy, and will even follow them in seeking answers to their pressing issues from the pages of God’s Law (cf. Deuteronomy 4:5-8; Psalm 81:13-16; Micah 4:1-5).

That’s not to say that living according to the Law of God won’t make us some enemies. When we are obedient to God’s Law it tends to put the sins of others into stark relief; some people will resent that enough to hate us, just as they did the Lord Jesus (John 15:20-25). There is no way to bring holiness to completion in the fear of the Lord apart from working to understand and obey the Law of God (2 Corinthians 7:1).

Second, keeping the Law of God is the primary work God’s Spirit is laboring to accomplish in us. God the Spirit is at work in those who have come to saving faith. He is laboring to help us be willing and obedient to the Lord (Philippians 2:13). He has power to enable us to walk in God’s ways with greater benefit and effect than we’ve ever dared to ask or think (Ephesians 3:20).

But we need to keep in mind that His work orders are structured according to the demands of God’s Law. God has sent His quickening Spirit into our lives in order to transform our hearts so that we can understand and obey His holy, righteous, and good Law (cf. Ezekiel 36:26,27). He is, after all, the Holy Spirit; we should expect that His every work in us would be unto the kind of holiness that He inspired as the Finger of God and that He embodies as the Spirit of holiness (cf. Matthew 12:28; Luke 10:20; Exodus 31:18).

Third, we must keep the Law of God because we cannot fulfill the demands of discipleship apart from it. Jesus calls all who would be His disciples to follow Him; John says we can only do that along the pathway marked out by the Law of God (1 John 2:1-6). Jesus says that we must prove our discipleship by loving one another. He also tells us that everything we might read or study about love is going to have its roots in the Law of God (Matthew 22:34-40).

Paul says that, of the three great Christian virtues—faith, hope, and love—the greatest of these is love. And love is the fulfilling of God’s Law (1 John 5:1-3). Jesus showed us as much in His own life and ministry. He insisted that He had come not to abolish the Law—like so many pastors and churches seem to want to do—but to fulfill it. And He also warned that those who do not follow in His path but neglect the Law of God—or worse—can expect to fall under His condemnation and discipline in some way (Matthew 5:17-20).