The Law of Liberty is the Law of Love. The Law of Liberty is to be lived out by the disciples of Christ and all believers.
Liberty as defined by the Oxford dictionaries: the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s way of life, behavior, or political views.
Love is much harder to define in all of its variations. Love as a way of life is generally to do no harm. A working definition for love that I like: seeing the need of another, doing whatever is possible on my part to satisfy that need without expectation of reward or repayment. Pages could be written on this alone.
The Ten Commandments are one portion of the law. Religions, including the Jewish faith, have their own laws. Some are laws set forth by God, and others are laws brought about by the religious leaders.
Some people, well meaning in most cases, would say we ought to go back to living out our Christian faith by the laws of Judaism. There is a letter from the Council at Jerusalem “to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia” (Acts 15:22-29) in which the apostles and elders in Jerusalem said they ought not do such a thing by command. Previous verses reveal that men from Judea were teaching that new Gentile believers ought to follow Jewish tradition.
“For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; that ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.”
Acts 15:28-29 KJV
Paul goes so far as to say, at a later time, that the law is the ministry of death.
But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones,
2 Corinthians 3:7a KJV
Paul also called it the law of sin and death.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Romans 8:2 KJV
To whom, after all, was the law given? It was given to the Israelites, through Moses, by God. The law was given to the people group that God called to be set apart from the world by worshiping Him and living according to His law.
The disciples of Christ are taught by James, in both chapters one and two of his letter to the Ekklesia, to live by the law of liberty.
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
James 1:25 KJV
So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.
James 2:12 KJV
This law of liberty is basically the teaching of Christ that we ought to love God and love one another. This love, and this law of liberty, is based in compassion and mercy. The commandment is from Jesus given unto His disciples; to love one another.
“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
John 13:34-35 KJV
One cannot be made to love another. If not given freely, it is not love. To love others is to live in the Law of Liberty. One cannot break the ten commandments and say it is love, for love would not murder or steal or cheat. Anything that harms another, or even oneself with such intent, is not love. To live in love is to be free from committing sin. There is no longer a need for the lists of “do nots” as there is only the “do” that one needs to be concerned with; to love God, others, and self. Live under the Law of Liberty.
Jesus used this as an answer to a Pharisee who asked Him what the greatest commandment in the law was.
Jesus said unto him, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Matthew 22:37-40 KJV
So, love trumps all. Study how Christ Jesus loved and do likewise. And let no man, or religion, add any other burden on you.