The Underlying Principle

Matthew 22: 37-40

And He said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind; this is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."

Jesus was quoting from Deuteronomy, His favorite Book. Here He lays it all out very specifically--the whole system of "the Law and the Prophets," which covers the whole Old Testament, is based on the principle of Love.

God loves us, and we are to love Him back. And we are to love who He loves, which is one another. When we love God, we won't put anything in front of Him between us, and we will respect and reverence Who He is and what He has said.

And when we love one another, we won't want to harm them in any way, but will want to do good to them instead. So we won't just not steal from him or covet what he has, but will rejoice with him in what God has given him. 

Every law that is righteous promotes the freedom and rights of every citizen without regard to who they are or where they're from.

And God's laws apply to all of us of every Nation. So we are to respect one another, and honor their worth to God, Who loves them. 

O my Father, thank You for Your laws and commandments and precepts and decrees. Thank You for showing us Your ways, so that we can formulate our laws to agree with Yours. Please be with our government people who have been elected and appointed at every level of governance. Protect them from deception and lead them to understand Your righteousness toward all of us, in ruling us with justice and equity. Help us, Father, to accomplish Your will for each of us and for all of us, to lead us into that great Kingdom of God that Your Son Jesus will head as our King over all kings and Lord over all lords.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!