Laws can serve or they can put you into bondage. Often, it is your own actions that determine which life you live.
When you walk in Love, you live a simpler and more fulfilling life. You move toward living in the “now” rather than always fretting about the past or future. Your expectations of others change dramatically. You allow people to be themselves without your laws being placed on them. By doing this you remove your yoke of bondage on them:
Galatians 5:13 For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this:“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”fn 15 But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!
I have heard of many instances where a woman who is a believer marry an unbelieving man, hoping to change him. They start their marriage unequally yoked. Unless Our Heavenly Father specifically tells you to take on this task, you will probably fail. Men are not women’s “construction projects”. Those women who think that way are simply manipulators who want to control others. In the above Scripture, the term neighbor does include your spouse.
Manipulation is a yoke of bondage in any relationship and it can be very subtle. We are called to encourage our spouse, our friends, and family to a greater level of Spiritual maturity. However, we cannot force or manipulate them by making them feel guilty or inferior to our spiritual standard. Love in action draws people to a higher level, not control, force, or manipulation.
The Kingdom of Our Heavenly Father is magnetic in nature, not force-based. People are drawn to Love. On the other hand, they resist the proud who place demands of performance on them. If you want people to join you in some form of unity, you must attract them by your Love in action. Otherwise you simply further alienate them and at least one of you will continue to walk in bondage to a law, probably the one in the mirror. Setting people free from bondage brings them into a liberty which in turns brings them into unity with you. Interesting how that works!