Rule Keepers

Growing up I understood religion as more or less keeping rules.  I saw thing in a setting of black and white "Thou Shalts" and "Thou Shalt Nots."  As I grew into adolescence, I was taken by how many "Thou Shalt Nots" there were and began to think of the church as the "Thou Shalt Not Church."  There is even a mantra that jokingly captures the sentiment: "We don't smoke and we don't chew, and we don't date girls that do."

The problem with reducing faith to rule-keeping is that rule keepers are drawn to becoming rule enforcers and rule enforcers find it difficult to love rule breakers, while God calls us to kingdom life that has as a cornerstone loving a world full of ruler breakers: "For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only begotten Son that whosoever believe on him shall not perish but have everlasting life" (Jn 3:16).

This "love over rule-keeping" is so paramount that the apostle Paul drove a spiritual stake in the ground saying, "The commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery,' 'You shall not murder,' 'You shall not steal,' 'You shall not covet,' and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law" (Rom 13:9-10).

The Christian Faith is not about discovering, defining and decreeing rules to keep and enforce; the Christian Faith is about discovering the love of God and living a life in which that love is reflected to the world about us: "Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us" (1 Jn 4:11-12).

The point is that God has not called us to be judges or lawyers or policemen - God has called us to be witnesses of his great love poured out into our lives.  And love needs no rules, it naturally leads us to discovering and doing the right and best thing for the objects of our love, which are to be God and others.

When we love, we will not kill, steal, lie, etc. because we do not want to bring harm to those we love.  We will worship, honor and follow in the steps of our Lord because we love and respect him.  Love equally does not lead to judgment but rather to relationship that shares faith rather than enforces rules.  Biblical faith causes us to value the sinners about us rather than resent them for being rule-breakers.

I'm not saying we should accept, embrace or even tolerate sins.  What I am saying and know the Bible teaches is that we should love and accept the sinner, while trying to help free them from sin and its consequences calling them rather than condemning them.  Jus' Say'n.