Rules

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So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead.
-Romans 7:10

This past Sunday I began teaching a series on the Ten Commandments. In 21 years of pastoring, this is the first time I've ever done it. The Ten Commandments have been having a cultural moment for a few decades now. Some people see them as the epitome of faithful Christian obedience. They want them plastered everywhere, recited, and legislated. Interestingly, the same sentiment is rarely held about the Beatitudes, which Jesus himself actually spoke, but I digress. The common mentality is that if everyone just followed the Ten Commandments, the world would be great. 

Now, honestly, I don't really disagree. There isn't one commandment among the ten that I take issue with. I think they hold both wisdom and integrity. 
Why, then, do I still cringe a little when I hear people talk about them as so central to Christianity? 

Perhaps it's that laws can be a tool for both life and death, if the character behind them is not understood. 

In fact, it's possible to follow all the right rules for all the wrong reasons and actually end up in a worse spot than you were before. Something that is intended to bring life... instead brings death. It brings legalism. It brings arrogance. It brings judgmentalism. It brings fear. It brings guilt. It brings exclusion. 

I'm absolutely fascinated that in the opening sentence that God offers his people in Exodus 20—the last thing God says before giving the first commandment, is this: 
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery."

Notice that God doesn't start by saying: "I'm commanding you to do this stuff because I'm in charge, so don't screw it up!"
Instead, God opens by saying that he is in relationship with them, and his desire is for their liberation. The Ten Commandments are the outflow of that introduction! 

We rarely think about commandments in ways that bring freedom. More often, we seem to act like they are meant to restrict us. And that makes sense. Eight of the ten commandments are "don't do that" commands. 
Perhaps that's why Jesus' approach to following commands was so surprising. 

When Jesus was asked about the focus of the law, he didn't respond with a restrictive one ("Don't do bad stuff!"). Instead, he said that the entire point of all of God's commands are summed up in the calling to love God and love others (Matthew 22). He constantly challenged people to understand God's character first, and then live accordingly in light of that experience of love. 

Perhaps that's why Paul says that without love, all of our obedience means nothing (Romans 13). And John writes that God is love, and therefore following God can never happen apart from love. 

When we follow the rules of God without understanding the character of God, we end up just being a very nice looking coffin, to paraphrase Jesus. We don't actually get to encounter a God who wants to set us free. We encounter a law giver who wants rule followers. And love is nowhere to be seen. 

But when our identity is rooted in being loved as one of God's own, we find that there is so much joy in living a life aligned with that love. It actually feels like freedom. 

So for the next two months, over here at my church, we'll be exploring how Jesus might approach all Ten Commandments in light of God's character of love and liberation. How would he help us live in love in all of these areas, and not simply turn our faith into a bunch of "dos and don'ts?" 

In your own life this week, how might you actually be liberated by trusting the commands of God? How might love redefine and enlarge your understanding of faithfulness? 

Jesus, help me live today in freedom and grace. 

Peace, 
Keith