Spirit of the Law vs Letter of the Law

[carlimac]

Last week my missionary son wrote that he had a little conflict with his companion over a mission rule. He said that since then he has been concerned about the balance between the spirit and the letter of the law. He asked if I had any thoughts or ideas about this. I haven't come up with much other than sometimes you have to follow the spirit.

Does anyone know any specific scriptures, general conference talks or other references that touch on this topic? To those who have been missionaries, how do you think this applies to mission rules?

Edited June 5, 2012 by carlimac

[skippy740]

Here's how I think of it - in particular about mission rules:

Manage tasks & lead people.

Getting up on time is a mission rule and it sets the tone for the rest of the day. This rule can be followed 100% of the time.

Being invited to dinner by an investigator whose husband wasn't home and it's your first day with your greenie... well, that one took some finessing. While dinner was served inside, we ate outside and taught her there. We didn't want to be rude - particularly with an investigator who wasn't familiar with all our rules. But we didn't want to just abandon the rules either. So, we did our best to 'compromise'.

We did the best we could to be servants of the Lord to do as He would want us to do.

[Vort]

Here is what I would tell my own missionary about this subject:

Dearest Elder Vort Jr.,

You ask about the conflict between the letter of the law and the spirit. As you know, the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life (2 Cor 3:6). The Lord offered a masterful sermon in which he compared the "ye have heard it said" keeping the letter of the law (e.g. don't kill, don't commit adultery) with the "but I say unto you" spirit of the law (e.g. don't get angry, don't look lustfully at a woman). In every case, the spirit of the law is much more difficult to keep than the letter.

Use this as a general rule of thumb: If the thing you want to do as keeping "the spirit of the law" is less restrictive or easier for the carnal man to keep than keeping "the letter of the law", you are very likely looking at doing something that is wrong and that is merely seeking justification as being "the spirit of the law". In all likelihood, it is no such thing.

With love,

Your adoring father

[MarginOfError]

To voice a somewhat unpopular opinion--sometimes breaking the rules is the right thing to do.

Anecdote: as a missionary, I was teaching English classes to a group of people. One of the students in my class was Dasha, a 16 year old girl who had become disillusioned with the Church although the rest of her family was quite active. Dasha always brought one of her friends to the English classes, and after a couple months, we convinced Dasha to set up a teaching appointment with her friend. She agreed, the date was set, and we showed up at the appointed time.

When we arrived, we were greeted by Dasha's father (a recent convert himself--the rest of the family had been baptized almost 10 years earlier). The father said that the girls were in the back room and he'd take us there. When we stepped into the room, we realized that "back room" actually meant "Dasha's bedroom." I'm pretty sure the father didn't know much about mission rules, because he then said, "Well, have a nice talk," turned around and left, closing the door behind him.

So there sat two young missionaries with two 16 year old girls in one of the girls' bedroom. Mission rules would have told us to get out of there quick; and I almost did. But I had this sudden moment of inspiration that told me to sit down and have the discussion. As it turns out, that moment was the turning point for Dasha. Her friend only had one more meeting with us (that time, in adherence to mission rules), but Dasha became active in the church, went to the temple with her family, and was serving a mini-mission within a year.

It should be noted, however, that the times I felt like I should obey the rules to the "letter of the law" far outnumbered the times I felt I shouldn't. If you find yourself frequently finding reasons to disregard the letter of the law, you probably need to do some self evaluation. But there will be moments when you need to.

Some other things to consider if you're going to violate the letter of the law:

1) you open yourself to criticism. I took some heat from other missionaries for my decision to meet with Dasha. The truth is, I broke the rule. My only defense is that I felt it was the right thing to do and I stuck with it, but I don't expect that people won't disapprove of the decision. Afterall, they didn't feel what I felt in the moment.

2) Even if breaking a rule is the right decision, you may have to suffer consequences. When Nephi killed Laban, he had to run. Even though he was commanded by the Lord, he would have been seen as a zealot if he had been caught. Again, just because you feel like you're being guided by the Lord doesn't mean other people will understand that. Being criticized for these decisions is part of the price you pay for doing what you feel is right.

3) Letter of the law and spirit of the law might have different weight depending on the "law." If you're talking about the 10 commandments, you might put more emphasis on the letter of the law than on the spirit of the law before deciding whether to kill someone. But if you're talking about a mission rule not to drink Coke, and you find yourself facing a decision to drink a Coke that someone has served you or offending your host, the letter of the law might carry less weight.

4) Lastly, perfect obedience is always the best course--unless the Spirit directs otherwise. But you have to be confident that it is the Spirit directing you, not your own personal biases.

[CarstenNorgaard]

Spirit of the law. The whole discussion on grace versus good works in the Scriptures exists for the very reason that we should know the problems with putting our trust in the letter of the law. Some people pay respect to the Atonement only with their lips because of their deeply held trust in the letter of the law.

[Anddenex]

Last week my missionary son wrote that he had a little conflict with his companion over a mission rule. He said that since then he has been concerned about the balance between the spirit and the letter of the law and how to balance the two. He asked fi I had any thoughts or ideas about this. I haven't come up with much other than sometimes you have to follow the spirit.

Does anyone know any specific scriptures, general conference talks or other references that touch on this topic? To those who have been missionaries, how do you think this applies to mission rules?

I have always loved Elder Richard G. Scott's words regarding the spirit of the law when he came and visited my mission, "Living the spirit of the law is living the letter of the law in the right spirit."

At BYU, we are under contract to have no one of the opposite sex in the appartment after midnight (ha, or was it 11pm), been to long. This was a rule to help prevent young couples in making a mistake. So, couples would leave the house and continue to be by themselves either outside, in car (if it was cold), etc...

In this example, the letter of the law was no one of the opposite sex in the apartment. Thus, these couples were living the letter, however by living the spirit of the law, we would recognize the purpose of the law and recognize that being out of the apartment alone, can also lead to trouble.

I would agree with Vort, that if your son is having to justify breaking a law, he is probably in the wrong.

I would also agree with MarginofError, in the sense that on my mission we weren't supposed to teach single women, and were supposed to allow the sister missionaries know and hand them over, so to speak. It really depended on my area. If sister missionaries were close, then I would easily hand the investigator over to the sister missionaries without teaching them. If the sister missionaries needed to travel, and make separate plans, just to visit a potential investigator discovered through tracting, then I would accept the invitiation to come in, teach the first discussion in less than 10 minutes, try to discern their interest, and if interested my companion and I would hand them over to the sisters. I had one companion who hated this and gave me a real hard time. I didn't care, it was his opinion on the matter. I justified the action, thinking, it would be a horrible waste of the sister missionaries time to say go visit this single lady, who is out of your way, and may not even be there when you get there.

In all this, I still felt I was following the counsel provided by Richard G. Scott --- to live the letter of the law in the right spirit. The spirit of the law, however is never an excuse to break the letter of the law. The Spirit of the law, I believe, is a higher obedience.

Best.

Edited June 4, 2012 by Anddenex

[Traveler]

While serving my mission in Coos Bay Oregon we lived in a small cottage on a slew off an isolated inlet. The small house belonged to a member and we lived there free of rent. However, it was kind of off in the boonies. The road to our little cottage was about a mile of a semi main road on a remote dirt road. The mission rules were to be home by ten and call the elders in my district and report into the mission home (every night). The missionaries I served with in our little district were very isolated. One night on our way home we came to the turnoff and a very strong “feeling” come to my companion and myself not to go down that isolated dirt road (our little cottage was the only man made thing on that dirt road). We discussed of feeling and decided not to go home that night. Instead we broke our mission rules and drove up the coast a bit and camped on the beach returning to our cottage the next morning.

Almost as soon as we got to our cottage the phone rang and it was our very concerned mission president. We explained what happened and our mission president agreed we did the “right” thing. That was 50 years ago and I have never discovered why we were directed by the spirit not to go home that night – no clue. But I have no concern that we should have done anything else.

The first and great mission rule for me was and still is – to listen to the promptings of the spirit.

The Traveler

[Misshalfway]

While serving my mission in Coos Bay Oregon we lived in a small cottage on a slew off an isolated inlet. The small house belonged to a member and we lived there free of rent. However, it was kind of off in the boonies. The road to our little cottage was about a mile of a semi main road on a remote dirt road. The mission rules were to be home by ten and call the elders in my district and report into the mission home (every night). The missionaries I served with in our little district were very isolated. One night on our way home we came to the turnoff and a very strong “feeling” come to my companion and myself not to go down that isolated dirt road (our little cottage was the only man made thing on that dirt road). We discussed of feeling and decided not to go home that night. Instead we broke our mission rules and drove up the coast a bit and camped on the beach returning to our cottage the next morning.

Almost as soon as we got to our cottage the phone rang and it was our very concerned mission president. We explained what happened and our mission president agreed we did the “right” thing. That was 50 years ago and I have never discovered why we were directed by the spirit not to go home that night – no clue. But I have no concern that we should have done anything else.

The first and great mission rule for me was and still is – to listen to the promptings of the spirit.

The Traveler

I love the principle being taught here. We can, if we're not careful, become rather married to the law. And that can make us blind and rather inflexible. Like the Jews with the Law of Moses.

Learning how to listen to the spirit while keeping the importance of the law in sight is such an important lesson. Sometimes when I think about all those lessons about obedience back in my long lost mission days, I'm sure that the lessons were about so much more than just compliance.

[horax]

I think it depends greatly on the situation and rule in question.

I mean, if his companion is saying "dude, let's go to a movei, it's not a bad one." I would view this as a reason to follow the letter of the law and say, "no way, jose."

If it's something else, the answer could be different.

I have learned that when we follow the church handbook of insturctions in leadership in all areas, the wards thrive more than if they do not. However, we each have a bit of responsibility where we are responsible for ourselves and families, etc. In that regard, the main thing is that the letter and spirit of hte law shoud both be followed if possible. Otherwise, the spirit of hte law is the thing to go by.

On my mission I was a spirit of hte law kind of guy, and there's times when that applies. However, in some situations, you must defer to the letter of the law.

[Traveler]

I thought to add another mission experience. In my first area my first companion was finishing his mission. BTW - he was considered a poor missionary but in my mind he was a great man. He struggled with mission rules - as a native American he struggled with a great many things in our wanetum (I am sure i misspelled it) society.

He finished his mission and when he left the area - he went home. When I did not receive a companion I decided after a couple of days to continue my missionary work without a companion. Three weeks later while attending one of the wards in my area the bishop asked me to come to his office. In the privacy of his office he inquired concerning my companion. I informed that my companion had completed his mission and gone home. The bishop asked where was my new companion? I responded that I did not have one.

The Bishop immediately picked up the phone and called my mission president - as it turns out - the mission president had forgotten to send me a new companion and at the time I did not feel it my position to tell the mission president that I did not have a companion. This condition was not explained in my mission handbook.

An interesting side note - that bishop and I became good friends and have kept in touch over the years. He later was called as a general authority. This is interesting because we have the same name - live in the same area and have on occasions been confused - Which has allowed me to get away with a great many "things" in the church.

The Traveler

[LinuxGal]

Spirit of the law. The whole discussion on grace versus good works in the Scriptures exists for the very reason that we should know the problems with putting our trust in the letter of the law. Some people pay respect to the Atonement only with their lips because of their deeply held trust in the letter of the law.

Romans 2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.