Thursday, June 07, 2007
Kohlberg and the Law
The Israelite community was learning to crawl out from under hundreds of years of slavery and oppression. In order to facilitate their progress, God met them where they were at and blessed them with the law. Or, as Paul puts it in Galatians 3:21 and 3:24 "Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring would come to whom the promise had been made.... Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith."
The disciplinarian referred to by Paul was a slave who would follow a child to school and keep him in line with a rod. Paul then is asking, "Now that you have developed to a higher level of moral reasoning and spiritual understanding why would you ever want to go back?" This is similar to asking an adult who grew up with a stick wielding Roman disciplinarian, "Now that you are a responsible adult with a job and a family, why would you ever want to go back to having a disciplinarian follow you to work and keep you in line with a rod?" (Not that there aren't a few adults who might actually need and benefit from this!)
A few years ago my friend Yung Lau introduced me to the concept that much of the law (including and perhaps especially the 10 commandments) functions at the base level of Kohlberg's stages of moral development. As we proceded to read through the Pentateuch with this thought in mind it became apparent that there were statements dealing with every stage of moral development all the way up to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart" and "Love your neighbor as yourself" which correspond to the most advanced level of Kohlberg's stages.
Paul goes on in verses 25-28, "But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." Jesus came and declared the Kingdom of God is here with its basis in the universal ethical principle of love. Paul ran with that good news and encouraged everyone else to keep up and run with him in God's new universal community.
The disciplinarian referred to by Paul was a slave who would follow a child to school and keep him in line with a rod. Paul then is asking, "Now that you have developed to a higher level of moral reasoning and spiritual understanding why would you ever want to go back?" This is similar to asking an adult who grew up with a stick wielding Roman disciplinarian, "Now that you are a responsible adult with a job and a family, why would you ever want to go back to having a disciplinarian follow you to work and keep you in line with a rod?" (Not that there aren't a few adults who might actually need and benefit from this!)
A few years ago my friend Yung Lau introduced me to the concept that much of the law (including and perhaps especially the 10 commandments) functions at the base level of Kohlberg's stages of moral development. As we proceded to read through the Pentateuch with this thought in mind it became apparent that there were statements dealing with every stage of moral development all the way up to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart" and "Love your neighbor as yourself" which correspond to the most advanced level of Kohlberg's stages.
Paul goes on in verses 25-28, "But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." Jesus came and declared the Kingdom of God is here with its basis in the universal ethical principle of love. Paul ran with that good news and encouraged everyone else to keep up and run with him in God's new universal community.
Labels: Epicenter, Galatians, gospel, Jesus, law, religion
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