Written On Their Hearts

¹⁴ For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
¹⁵ Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;

Romans 2:14-15 (KJV)

Written on their hearts – According to Paul, the Gentiles have the law written on their hearts. The proof of this is that the Gentiles “do by nature the things contained in the law.” So the logic reveals that if the law is truly written on our hearts, then we should be doing the very things the law says to do.

These go hand-in-hand. The doing of the law is the physical representation that the law is written on our hearts. How does this fit in with your view of the law? Most of us claim the law is written on our hearts as a way to separate ourselves from actual obedience to the law. Well, I don’t really need to keep the Sabbath because it’s written on my heart. or, I can eat leaven during Passover because the law is written on my heart. And even, We’re no longer accountable to the physical law because the laws are written on our hearts. I’ve heard all of these excuses throughout my life.

Surprising to me, I only recently caught this detail upon another reading of this letter to the Romans from Paul. I hadn’t noticed it before, but it jumped from the pages this time around. I realize there’s so much we miss when reading through the text – it’s imperative to read and reread. Paul was a law-abiding Jew; a Pharisee. He claimed that he never offended any of the laws (Acts 25:8).

So if Paul teaches that the doing of the law is the proof of it written on our hearts, then are we open to commit ourselves to this realization? Are we willing to do the law?

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

1 John 5:3

Clearly, the Apostles had a Jewish view of the law and its importance in our lives. There must be a point when we grow away from the antisemitism of the Orthodox church, away from the antisemitism of the reformist movement, and closer to the lives and worldviews of the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua, and His Jewish Apostles.