“the
following things you should not be ashamed of and do not sin from fear of what
others think: of the law of the Most High or of the covenant, of a verdict that
acquits the godless, of keeping accounts with a travelling companion, of
settling property on your friends, of being accurate over scales and weights,
of making small and large profits, of gaining from commercial transactions, of
disciplining your children strictly, of lashing a wicked slave till you draw
blood. With an interfering wife, it is as well to use your seal and where there
are many hands, lock things up. Whatever stores you issue, do it by number and
weight, spending and taking, put everything in writing. Do not be ashamed to
correct a stupid person or a fool, or an old dotard who bickers with young
people. Then you will show yourself really educated and win the approval of
everyone” {Sirach 42:1-8}
With regards
to beating a slave till you draw blood, anyone who commits sin enslaves his/her
personality “that is why you must not allow sin to reign over your mortal
bodies and make you obey their desires; or give any parts of your bodies over
to sin to be used as instruments of evil. Instead, give yourselves to God as
people brought to life from the dead and give every part of your bodies to God
to be instruments of uprightness; and then sin will no longer have any power
over you – you are living not under law but under grace” (Rom.6:12-14) however,
the Law of ten commandment is still important just that Grace was the
fulfillment of its requirements in the life, death and resurrection of the Son
of God (Jesus Christ) whose life we currently live thus ‘what the law could not
do because of the weakness of human nature, God did, sending his own Son in the
same human nature as any sinner to be a sacrifice for sin and condemning sin in
that human nature. This was so that the law’s requirements might be fully
satisfied in us as we direct our lives not by our natural inclinations but by
the Spirit’ (Rom.8:3-4)
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