We have a tendency to want law.
To begin, we're going to read through some of the laws
of the Old Testament.
When a woman has a discharge, and the discharge in her body is blood, she shall be in her menstrual impurity for seven days, and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening. And everything on which she lies during her menstrual impurity shall be unclean. Everything also on which she sits shall be unclean. And whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. And whoever touches anything on which she sits shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. Whether it is the bed or anything on which she sits, when he touches it he shall be unclean until the evening. And if any man lies with her and her menstrual impurity comes upon him, he shall be unclean seven days, and every bed on which he lies shall be unclean. (Leviticus 15:19-24 ESV).
In reading the Old Testament laws, we encounter a lot of strange laws. Often, we, as
Christians, like to ignore that the Old Testament has these weird and crazy
laws. But you know what? Atheists don't ignore them. Nonbelievers don't ignore
them. Typically, when you are talking with them about Christianity, these
ridiculous laws from the Old Testament are things that come up.
So how do we handle these laws in the Old Testament?
Let's read a few more.
Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. (Exodus 35:2 ESV).
Anyone
do some work on Saturday?
I actually put together a bunk bed on Saturday. Should I be put to death? I went out to eat. Should the hostess, waitress, and cooks be put to death?
Absolutely
not. We don't follow the law any more. If we did, we would be putting a lot of
people to death.
For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles. (Leviticus 21:18-20 ESV).
None
of those people are allowed in the assembly the Lord. If we still followed this
principle, we would exclude people with those issues from coming to church. But
we don't do that.
The
Old Testament has a lot of crazy laws. How do we deal with them? What do we do
with the law?
The
Seventh Day Adventists still believe that we should hold to the law. You will
notice that they still honor the Sabbath.
Some
Christians still believe that we should celebrate the Old Testament festivals.
I see some benefit in doing that. I spent one year at our church celebrating
each one, yet Christians don't have to honor the ordinances of the law.
The
most popular method, that we are more likely guilty of, is that we pick and
choose which laws we want to keep and which laws we want to ignore. We
disregard those laws we think are silly. We keep those laws we like. Who wants
to be the crushed testicle or menstrual checker when people come to church
anyway? Nobody wants to do those things, so we ignore it. But this is really a
totally dishonest way to deal with the law. What is the process for picking and
choosing anyway?
Our
arbitrary method doesn't really make any sense. We accept the laws we like and
reject the ones that seem a little weird. When we pick and choose laws, we get
to decide what is important and what isn't. This isn't the way we should go
about it.
In
all this talk about the law, I want us to understand that the law was very
important. With that said, we can go to the New Testament for guidance on how
to handle the law.
So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. (Galatians 3:24-26 ESV).
The
law was our guardian until Christ came.
If
you were living in the world before the Hebrews were brought out of Egypt and
Moses was given the law, you would recognize that it was a vicious world. Maybe
no more vicious than some of the places in our world today. Places that would
benefit from the law just like the Hebrews benefitted from the law.
When
you encounter a teaching like "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,"
it helps to understand the world that teaching was given to. God gave them that
teaching to prevent people from chopping off someone's head for stealing
something. It was limiting retaliation and would stop the process of escalating
violence. The maximum punishment for a crime could not be greater than the
crime.
The
law played a great role until Christ came. It was important. It kept humanity
in check. It was intended to shape the people into being the people God wanted
them to be, but it didn't always work. The people didn't follow the law the way
God intended.
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:17-20 ESV).
Jesus
is teaching that the law is ending. But it's ending with its intended
completion. Not abruptly or prematurely. The "all is accomplished" in
Jesus.
The
Scribes and Pharisees were people really good at following the law. They would
seek to complete the letter of the law while ignoring the spirit of the law.
That isn't just something unique to their times; we see it a lot in our
society. Take bankers for instance. Not our local bankers building our main
streets and financing our homes. I'm talking the stories we see in the news. Many
of those big bankers will follow the letter of the law, yet they will find a
way to avoid the intended purpose of the law.
This
is why we have so many lawyers. Our society is filled with people who will
follow the letter of the law while ignoring the purpose of the law. We need
lawyers because laws need to be interpreted. People can find ways to wiggle
around the letter of the law. And the unfortunate truth is that law can never
stop abuse. We could write laws for nearly everything, yet some corrupt person
would find a way to follow that law while avoiding the intended purpose of the
law. In that case we just write a new law, and another corrupt person would
come along and find a way to skirt that law.
We
write law after law to create a just society, but we cannot prevent evil people
from circumventing the law. Evil people will abuse the law while good people
will honor the spirit of the law.
This
is what we see with the Pharisess and the Scribes. They would follow the letter
of the law. For example, the law told them to honor their parents, but they
claim that they have fulfilled that law without honoring their parents because
the honor due to their parents has been given to God. (Matthew 15:1-9). There are always ways for people with
corrupted hearts to avoid following the laws they don't want to follow. The
Pharisees and Scribes found legal ways around all the things that God intended
for them to do.
We're
not really all that different.
That's
the problem with laws. If we think Christianity is a group of laws that we have
to follow, then we will figure out ways to legally get around those laws. We
will fulfill the law to the minimum to enable ourselves to do whatever we want
to do with the rest of our lives.
Christianity
is not a bunch of laws. Jesus came to fulfill the law and bring the law to its
intended ending. He came to bring something better.
In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. (Hebrews 8:13 ESV).
According
to the writer of Hebrews, the old law is obsolete. But the zeitgeist of modern
Christendom makes us feel uncomfortable saying exactly this. The writer of
Hebrews is stating that we don't have to follow the law any more. Repeating
this Scripture in the wrong circles will get you strange looks. I once had
someone get very stern and irate with me over stating this very thing. There is
something in our Christian culture in America that makes us not want to be
freed from the law. Due to this, we are uncomfortable saying exactly what
Scripture says. The law is obsolete. We are no longer under it.
One
of my little daughters who is just learning to write wrote me a little note and
handed it to me. It read, "I love mom and daddy." Love is the
opposite of law. We wouldn't need laws in our society if everyone loved each
other. Nearly every law is there to prevent people from behaving in ways that
are not loving to each other.
We
no longer have the law. And if we are looking at it purely at what we are now
obligated to do, we have it worse in a way. We now have the Holy Spirit guiding
our life. In some morphed albeit true sense, this means that we have more laws to
follow.
The Holy Spirit knows what you should be doing this afternoon, and He is going to prompt you. You need to do that prompting. The Holy Spirit knows what you should say to encourage your friend, and He is going to prompt you. You need to follow through on that. The Holy Spirit knows what you should tell your spouse, and He is going to prompt you. We must ask ourselves, "Are we willing to listen?" "Are we willing to follow?"
The Holy Spirit knows what you should be doing this afternoon, and He is going to prompt you. You need to do that prompting. The Holy Spirit knows what you should say to encourage your friend, and He is going to prompt you. You need to follow through on that. The Holy Spirit knows what you should tell your spouse, and He is going to prompt you. We must ask ourselves, "Are we willing to listen?" "Are we willing to follow?"
There
is a guy in our church who was given a to-do list by his wife. And his wife
posted on Facebook, "Made honey-do list for my hubby today to accomplish
after his dentist appointment this morning. And he did everything on the list
and more."
To-do
lists are good. The husband in my church excelled with the to-do list from his
wife. He jokingly said that he did it because he just wanted to eat.
Like
the husbands joke, we often want to follow the law to just get the benefits
that the law brings. The Pharisees followed the law because they wanted to be
God's people. We sometimes follow the law to prevent ourselves from going to
hell. We want benefits. And because we are just looking for benefits, we miss
out on the blessing of actually being God's children.
God
wants us to be more than just people who follow the law. He wants us to be in a
relationship with Him. We would do well to remember that at all times.
I
can't give you a list of things to do to please God like the woman in my church
gave to her husband. Isn't this a great message? You've spent all this time
reading to get to this point, and now I am telling you that I am not going to
tell you what to do. I can't give you a list of do's and don'ts.
Many
denominations make handbooks with lists of do's and don'ts. But there is always
another thing that could be added to their books because we are unable make a conclusive
and authoritative list of do's and don'ts. If that is what God wanted, He would
have given us a handbook Himself.
With
that said, I will give you a list of things that could help you improve your
relationship with God. But don't make them laws. If you make them laws to be
completed, you will miss the point. A list makes it easy to go through,
accomplish the task, check off the list, and act like we are right with God.
God doesn't want you to do a list; He wants your life.
A
lot of the times, in order to please the people in the church who want to be
minimal Christians, the church compromises and gives list. Instead of the
people in church giving God their whole lives, churches are filled with people
just doing the minimum it takes to appear Christian. But the harsh truth is
that if we aren't giving God our whole life, then we really aren't Christians.
I
was listening to a sermon where the preacher was talking about the kingdom of
God. He was stating that the kingdom of God is this for you, and this for
someone else, and this for the next someone else. You will get healing. You
will get better. You will be able to cope with life. Generally, these things
are true, but we flirt with a dangerous line we turn the gospel into just a
benefit for us to receive.
The
gospel can only bring its benefits when you truly surrender your life to Jesus.
It's not a benefit if you just want benefits. It is a benefit when you truly
surrender.
It's like when you love your wife. If you bring home flowers for some manipulative reason and she found it out, the flowers wouldn't count. But if you brought flowers home just to show her that you love her - not for any ulterior motives whatsoever, then they have their worth.
It's like when you love your wife. If you bring home flowers for some manipulative reason and she found it out, the flowers wouldn't count. But if you brought flowers home just to show her that you love her - not for any ulterior motives whatsoever, then they have their worth.
It's
the same thing with God, except He knows our heart and can't be deceived. If we
do what the law teaches and don't give Him our heart, it doesn't work. We may
want the blessings of being God's children, but if we don't give Him our heart,
then those blessing will not come.
Being
right with God is not about checking off a list. So with that big disclaimer, here
is the list I mentioned a little bit ago.
First,
read your Bible daily. Reading the Bible helps you get in tune with what God
wants for your life. The Bible is the inspired word of God. We encounter God
through reading His inspired words. We must be careful though. We shouldn't go
to the Bible to just get a list of things to do. Instead we should go to the
Bible to learn about who God is and encounter Him. When we learn about who God
is and combine that with listening to the Holy Spirit in our life, we will be
the people God wants us to be. All too often, we just don't get into the Bible.
Or we study the Bible to make it say what we want it to say rather than allow
it to transform who we are.
Second,
pray daily. Actually, we need to go beyond just praying daily and begin to
learn to live a life of praying constantly. It's easier said than done. It's
having a conversation with God. Not just us talking, but us listening. It's
living in His presence. It's building a relationship with the Creator of the
universe who for some mysterious reason loves us. Being a Christian isn't about
following some laws; it's about being God's follower and, in many ways, His
friend.
Third,
do what you feel prompted to do. Actually live out the life God is leading you
to. Especially the crazy things. God is leading you do things. I guarantee
that. The more you listen to God, the more you hear His voice, the more you
will be led to do the things God wants you to do. All too often, we just ignore
what God wants us to.
I
had a great high school baseball coach. He would take time to correct me when I
would be doing something wrong. He would see my mistakes and take me aside to
tell me how to improve. I would be pitching and do something wrong, so he would
tell me what to change. One of those times that he pulled me aside he said,
"You know, I spend a lot of time correcting you, Regan, because I believe
that you can be better. I don't spend time correcting [and he pointed at a
teammate] because he's not going to be better." God spends a lot of time
prompting us. But if we aren't listening, it will be as if He isn't prompting
us. We will not become any better. The less we listen to the promptings we
hear, the more we shut off the pathways to hearing Him.
It's like a person who has had a stroke. They have to work on rewiring everything so that they can once again do all the things that they previously did. They have to develop different neural pathways to laboriously do the things that once came easily to them. Sometimes we are like that with God. We have hardened ourselves to His promptings so much that we no longer hear His voice. He doesn't give up on us though. He will continually try to get past the hardness of our hearts. He is always willing to guide us, but it is up to us to listen to God and be the people that He wants us to be.
It's like a person who has had a stroke. They have to work on rewiring everything so that they can once again do all the things that they previously did. They have to develop different neural pathways to laboriously do the things that once came easily to them. Sometimes we are like that with God. We have hardened ourselves to His promptings so much that we no longer hear His voice. He doesn't give up on us though. He will continually try to get past the hardness of our hearts. He is always willing to guide us, but it is up to us to listen to God and be the people that He wants us to be.
Fourth,
sacrificially love others. I have found that best way to get to know God is to
be His hands and feet in loving others. Take going on a mission trip. When we
go on a mission trip and spend a whole week focused on loving others, God
honors that. He interacts with us in great ways. But that experience of God doesn't
need to be relegated to the mission field; we should be living our lives like
that daily. Turn your regular life into a mission field.
Fifth,
get plugged into real relationships with others in the church. The one thing
that can happen when we get together that can't happen when we are on our own
is encouragement. That should be a key element of the gathering together. When
I preach a sermon, the point of my preaching is to encourage people to be who
God wants us to be. When I write an article like this one, the purpose is to
encourage you, the reader, to be who God wants you to be.
As a teacher, I want to encourage people to be all that God destined them to be. It is up to you to live the life that God wants you to live. No amount of listening to teaching will do that. You have to be the one learning to listen to His voice, and then act on it. God is going to tell you what He wants you to do with your life. God is going to tell me what He wants to do with my life. Typically, he isn't going to tell me what He wants you to do with your life. My role as a pastor is to encourage you to listen to God and be who God wants you to be with your life.
As a teacher, I want to encourage people to be all that God destined them to be. It is up to you to live the life that God wants you to live. No amount of listening to teaching will do that. You have to be the one learning to listen to His voice, and then act on it. God is going to tell you what He wants you to do with your life. God is going to tell me what He wants to do with my life. Typically, he isn't going to tell me what He wants you to do with your life. My role as a pastor is to encourage you to listen to God and be who God wants you to be with your life.
No
church will be a healthy church unless the people in the church are focused on
listening to the Holy Spirit and doing what the Spirit wants them to do with
their lives. A church will not receive the blessing that God wants to give it
unless that church is trying to be who God wants them to be. Likewise, a person
will not receive the blessing that God wants to give them unless that person is
trying to be who God wants them to be.
But
let's be honest, sometimes the encouragement of church leaders or brothers and
sisters in Jesus must take the form of correction. This isn't always fun.
Sometimes, we may be going off on the wrong path and need guidance.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.(2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV).
As
a teacher, when I deliver Scripture, it should be accomplishing some of these
four things. Being part of a church helps us to stay grounded and remain
encouraged. But we must remember that the biggest component to being who God
wants us to be is listening to the Holy Spirit guide and prompt us in our daily
lives.
These
five tips are just some practices that I have found useful in being who God
wants me to be. I hope that you will find them useful in being who God wants
you to be.
Your
relationship with God is what matters.
There
is a story from a guy named Parker Palmer as told by Dr. Marcus Borg.
It's
a story about a three-year-old girl who was the only child in her family. But
now her mom is pregnant, and this three-year-old girl is very excited about
having a baby in the house. The day comes where the mother-to-be delivered, and
the mom and dad go off to the hospital. A couple of days later come home with a
new baby brother. And the little girl is just delighted.
But
after they've been home for a couple of hours, the little girl tells her
parents that she wants to be with the baby in the baby's room, alone, with the
door shut. She's absolutely insistent about the door being shut. It kind of
gives her folks the willies, you know? They know she's a good little girl, but
they've heard about sibling rivalry and all of this.
Then
they remember that they've recently installed an intercom system [think of an
old-style monitor if you don't know what an intercom system is] in preparation
for the arrival of the new baby, and they realize that they can let their
little girl do this, and if they hear the slightest weird thing happening, they
can be in there in a flash.
So they let their little girl go into the room.
They close the door behind her. They race to the listening post. They hear her
footsteps move across the room. They imagine her now standing over the baby's
crib, and then they hear her say to her two-day-old baby brother, "Tell me
about God. I've almost forgotten."
The idea is that we have all come from God. The
story implies that the young three-year-old could remember being in God's
presence, but that feeling was dwindling. The question we are all faced with is
whether we are going to continue to grow closer to God throughout our lives or
are we going to drift away. The choice is ours, and we can develop the
practices of growth or the practices of drift in our life by what we invest our
time in. The way we grow closer is to learn to listen to the Spirit and act
upon who He is guiding us to be.
Christian culture will continue to try and convince
us that the way to do that is through following laws. It's wrong. Laws are not
going to get you closer to God. You could be the most moral person around, yet
you could be just as far away from God as the most immoral person you know. God
wants you to be close to Him. He wants you to be in a relationship with Him. He
wants you to be His. There are no laws that if we followed would bring that
about. It only comes through a willing heart, a willingness to listen, a
willingness to let that Spirit lead you, a willingness to act on His
promptings, and a willingness to be different when God wants you to be
different. That's what God wants in our lives.
May we grow closer to God through our lives. May
we not stray into an unhealthy dependence upon laws. May we learn to listen to
Him every day of our life.
The law has been fulfilled. The law has been made obsolete. The Holy Spirit has been given to us in its place. May we learn to listen to Him.
**
Some Bible passages for further reading.
And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:28-31 (ESV)
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35 (ESV)
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. John 15:12-14 (ESV)
For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Romans 13:9-10 (ESV)
And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us. 1 John 3:23-24 (ESV)
And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. 2 John 1:5-6 (ESV)
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. James 2:8 (ESV)
The law has been fulfilled. The law has been made obsolete. The Holy Spirit has been given to us in its place. May we learn to listen to Him.
Some Bible passages for further reading.
And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:28-31 (ESV)
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35 (ESV)
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. John 15:12-14 (ESV)
For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Romans 13:9-10 (ESV)
And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us. 1 John 3:23-24 (ESV)
And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. 2 John 1:5-6 (ESV)
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. James 2:8 (ESV)
