That's a keen observation from Shakespeare (Friar Lawrence, Romeo & Juliet). We can't always judge what is right with our eyes because we all have filters from our experience and from how we process it in our thinking. Jesus acknowledged the goodness of Jewish Law, but He rebuked the Pharisees for being oppressive in their application of it. Their filter was a rigid legalistic approach the Lord said was of Satan. It was a thing that could make them look good on the outside but did nothing to convert their hearts. They thought they were pleasing God with their careful scripture-based approach, but they proved by their actions who it was they were actually serving.
It is easy to see that lying to protect someone whom law enforcement is unjustly persecuting proves love better than telling the truth about where that they hiding just because telling the truth is always the right thing to do. Disobeying an unjust law that was made to kill you proves wisdom better than going obediently to your death because obeying the law is always right. Would God get upset about either of those things? I don't think so.
I have long been of the opinion that feelings can be deceptive. Some of the things we count for love aren't love at all. The proof of love, just like the proof of faith, is in what you do, and sometimes that comes by a choice to be kind to people who are not being kind to you. But this doesn't mean that justice shouldn't be done. Seeking justice for the abused is also love, as is defending them and rescuing them from their abusers. People are responsible for their choices, and justice brings consequences for bad ones. There is room for mercy, but denying justice by removing consequences completely, as the liberals seek to do, isn't love to the ones who were wronged, and it only encourages evil to continue. Upholding justice is love to all neighbors who would be oppressed by crime if justice fails.
According to Jeremiah 31:31-34, the new covenant God would make with His people through Jesus would change the focus of how people obeyed God. In the new covenant, the source of obedience became internal, a matter of conscience. His laws were put into our minds and our hearts, and, as Paul observed, that can work out to be different for different people. (i.e. What is permissible to the conscience of one might not be permissible to the conscience of another.) So I would say that parsing this thing should begin there. What does your conscience say about what you intend to do? Does it afflict you, or is there peace? (Keeping in mind that conscience for you does not need to be made into law for everybody else.)
In any case, the Golden Rule (Matt. 7:12) always points the way to love. What would you want someone to do for you in a particular situation? Whatever the answer is, that is the thing you should do. That would be love, and love fulfills the moral law without having to think about it. (Rom.13:10)
"Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied;
And vice sometimes by action dignified."
That's a keen observation from Shakespeare (Friar Lawrence, Romeo & Juliet). We can't always judge what is right with our eyes because we all have filters from our experience and from how we process it in our thinking. Jesus acknowledged the goodness of Jewish Law, but He rebuked the Pharisees for being oppressive in their application of it. Their filter was a rigid legalistic approach the Lord said was of Satan. It was a thing that could make them look good on the outside but did nothing to convert their hearts. They thought they were pleasing God with their careful scripture-based approach, but they proved by their actions who it was they were actually serving.
It is easy to see that lying to protect someone whom law enforcement is unjustly persecuting proves love better than telling the truth about where that they hiding just because telling the truth is always the right thing to do. Disobeying an unjust law that was made to kill you proves wisdom better than going obediently to your death because obeying the law is always right. Would God get upset about either of those things? I don't think so.
I have long been of the opinion that feelings can be deceptive. Some of the things we count for love aren't love at all. The proof of love, just like the proof of faith, is in what you do, and sometimes that comes by a choice to be kind to people who are not being kind to you. But this doesn't mean that justice shouldn't be done. Seeking justice for the abused is also love, as is defending them and rescuing them from their abusers. People are responsible for their choices, and justice brings consequences for bad ones. There is room for mercy, but denying justice by removing consequences completely, as the liberals seek to do, isn't love to the ones who were wronged, and it only encourages evil to continue. Upholding justice is love to all neighbors who would be oppressed by crime if justice fails.
According to Jeremiah 31:31-34, the new covenant God would make with His people through Jesus would change the focus of how people obeyed God. In the new covenant, the source of obedience became internal, a matter of conscience. His laws were put into our minds and our hearts, and, as Paul observed, that can work out to be different for different people. (i.e. What is permissible to the conscience of one might not be permissible to the conscience of another.) So I would say that parsing this thing should begin there. What does your conscience say about what you intend to do? Does it afflict you, or is there peace? (Keeping in mind that conscience for you does not need to be made into law for everybody else.)
In any case, the Golden Rule (Matt. 7:12) always points the way to love. What would you want someone to do for you in a particular situation? Whatever the answer is, that is the thing you should do. That would be love, and love fulfills the moral law without having to think about it. (Rom.13:10)