Why does God give us rules? Does God profit from us, benefit by us when we keep the Commandments? Surely not! God gives us rules because they are guides to avoid damaging ourselves. Look at the commandments restated by Christ: Love God with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself.* If each person on this earth would give serious energy to living like that there would be no slums, no abusive power brokers in government or business or the social services office in any land, no wanton destruction of natural resources, no broken families, no theft, murder, abuse or even discourtesy!
So when we live in an age as we do now, where the great "ME WANT" is worshiped and adored, it is hardly surprising that people who want THEIR needs met (at any cost to others) do not consider such basic concerns as how their great sucking needs chew up other people is offensive.
In day to day physics terms there is a response to any action, a cost if you will to each action. In a physical sense that means that if I cut down trees to build houses the woodland will change both by the loss of the trees and the coming of more dense population. The same is true for our choices each day. If I choose to go shopping for diapers for the local pantry to distribute to folks in need I have made certain changes in my world; if I choose another pair of shoes I may be happier about working out or look better going out to dinner and those are entirely different impacts from my expenditures of time, energy and money. Is one wrong and the other right? Either might be right or wrong, but the point here is that we rarely consider the impact of the hundreds of choices we make every day. It is called intentional living and it takes more thought and energy than most of us generally expend.
So if we rarely think about the impact of such small and pretty unimportant choices, what if we were left to grow up with no encouragement to think of others, not consider consequences both intended and unintended, or if we were given no rules by which to negotiate a very dangerous and busy world? So we give our children as many rules and maxims and adages as we can think of to give them tools to avoid death, injury and emotional trauma.
God does the same for His children. Just as our rules (don't run into the street) change in interpretation as we develop judgement and can be built on (don't run into the street without checking for traffic and unless there is an elderly person at risk of being run over), so our understanding of God's rules mature and deepen, but the rule is there for a reason and only the interpretation and understanding change with context. There is absolutely never any excuse for murdering someone....unless by doing so you can prevent the immediate serious injury or death of another person or ones self. The fact that there is a circumstance when the rule is interpreted differently does not make the basic rule invalid or bad.
To embrace the idea that rules are bad is to embrace a level of chaos that is frightening. This is why we all tend to only advocate for the particular rule that gets in the way of what we personally want! Unfortunately, so many people are espousing diverse evil, the chaos seems to be ready to spew out on all of us at any moment.
But, our chaos does not change God. In fact, in times of great peace and community agreement we grow complacent and say "we are pleasing God and we must do no more than we are doing now." So possibly, as the secular world and the members of the Kingdom of God on earth respond to all the challenges and sorrows and just plain evils of this world, we have a great opportunity to live in ways that make our faith more than a creed or social construct.
Will you consider being more intentional about loving God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind? Will you look persistently for ways to be the hands and feet of Christ to your neighbors (wherever they live) in the same way that you enjoy the kindness and generosity of God in your life?
There is not greater time to start than today.
*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: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”
Mark 12:30-31
So when we live in an age as we do now, where the great "ME WANT" is worshiped and adored, it is hardly surprising that people who want THEIR needs met (at any cost to others) do not consider such basic concerns as how their great sucking needs chew up other people is offensive.
In day to day physics terms there is a response to any action, a cost if you will to each action. In a physical sense that means that if I cut down trees to build houses the woodland will change both by the loss of the trees and the coming of more dense population. The same is true for our choices each day. If I choose to go shopping for diapers for the local pantry to distribute to folks in need I have made certain changes in my world; if I choose another pair of shoes I may be happier about working out or look better going out to dinner and those are entirely different impacts from my expenditures of time, energy and money. Is one wrong and the other right? Either might be right or wrong, but the point here is that we rarely consider the impact of the hundreds of choices we make every day. It is called intentional living and it takes more thought and energy than most of us generally expend.
So if we rarely think about the impact of such small and pretty unimportant choices, what if we were left to grow up with no encouragement to think of others, not consider consequences both intended and unintended, or if we were given no rules by which to negotiate a very dangerous and busy world? So we give our children as many rules and maxims and adages as we can think of to give them tools to avoid death, injury and emotional trauma.
God does the same for His children. Just as our rules (don't run into the street) change in interpretation as we develop judgement and can be built on (don't run into the street without checking for traffic and unless there is an elderly person at risk of being run over), so our understanding of God's rules mature and deepen, but the rule is there for a reason and only the interpretation and understanding change with context. There is absolutely never any excuse for murdering someone....unless by doing so you can prevent the immediate serious injury or death of another person or ones self. The fact that there is a circumstance when the rule is interpreted differently does not make the basic rule invalid or bad.
To embrace the idea that rules are bad is to embrace a level of chaos that is frightening. This is why we all tend to only advocate for the particular rule that gets in the way of what we personally want! Unfortunately, so many people are espousing diverse evil, the chaos seems to be ready to spew out on all of us at any moment.
But, our chaos does not change God. In fact, in times of great peace and community agreement we grow complacent and say "we are pleasing God and we must do no more than we are doing now." So possibly, as the secular world and the members of the Kingdom of God on earth respond to all the challenges and sorrows and just plain evils of this world, we have a great opportunity to live in ways that make our faith more than a creed or social construct.
Will you consider being more intentional about loving God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind? Will you look persistently for ways to be the hands and feet of Christ to your neighbors (wherever they live) in the same way that you enjoy the kindness and generosity of God in your life?
There is not greater time to start than today.
*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: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”
Mark 12:30-31
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