Good post, thanks. But...
How did you arrive at this conclusion?
I think the "spirit of the law" idea is unbiblical.
The foundation is in Jesus' teachings in the gospels. Examples...
In Luke 6 the disciples are accused of breaking Sabbath. Jesus essentially tells the Pharisees that the point of the commandment is
rest, not
religious observance, and that fixing themselves a snack is lawful as part of
resting. As long as the intent of the commandment is upheld, the commandment is upheld... and the letter of the law be damned.
In Mark 7, Jesus condemns the practice of donating money/property to the temple as a way of legal avoidance of the commandment to support their aged parents. Again, the intent of the commandment (supporting the aged in retirement) is more important than the letter of the law.
In the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7), Jesus goes through a laundry list of OT Commandments, saying "you've heard it said... but I say to you..." He contradicts the idea of "enforce these against each other" (which is to say, by bringing each other before the judge) and instead internalizes them as "enforce these upon yourself." I might summarize the whole thing as "stop trying to figure out what you can get away with, and instead aim to uphold the intent of the commandments."
None of that is an explicit statement of the principle, but when we examine Jesus' argument inductively, that's the logic we see behind them. Paul may state it more clearly...
Romans 7:6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not
in the oldness of the letter.
Hmmm... maybe not as explicitly stated as I remember. I sort of read between the lines, like...
serve in newness of the spirit [of the Law], and not in the oldness of the letter [of the Law]. But Paul spends a good amount of time contrasting
Spirit with
Law in several letters
, and this is what I understand him to mean.
-Jarrod
