The last
three blogs were about prayer. I talked about praying to images and icons, then
explored the “to whom” we pray, and finally the purpose of prayer. Now I would
like to cover rule-following and transcendent love. I will cover the true
reason for obedience to God, why we follow rules, and nature and purpose of
transcendent love.
Obedience
I want
to begin with obedience. There is something important about this in every one
of our lives—and especially in response to a command such as, “Love your
neighbor as yourself,” or “love your enemies and pray for them,” or “do not covet,”
or even the more personal commands God gives us.
Obedience
to God is not found in mere conformity to religious rules, behaviors, rituals,
practices or morality—either to please God or to control Him.
The key
reason for true obedience isn’t to try to control God, but to deepen our loving
relationship with Him. As we become more responsive to Him, we move as He
moves. As we move with Him, we know Him better and better. There are
exceptions, but obedience to God is less like a soldier carrying out orders
from on high, and more like a dance where He leads and we follow.
Rule-Following
In the
secular culture, obedience to the rules is how we receive approval, and
punishment is how we control those who will not willingly comply. We are
approved based on the measure of our conformance to the rules.
This is
true in Christian churches and in all religions. We do things a certain way
because the leaders and tradition tell us to, and if we don’t, we are politely
ignored, marginalized, shunned, talked about, berated or put out. When we
conform, we receive approval and acceptance; when we don’t, its disapproval and
rejection. Countries, cities, tribes, social organizations, religions,
cultures, gangs, families and institutions of all kinds use this to define who
they are, and to enforce that definition on members.
In
Genesis 2, Adam is given one rule for living in the Garden of Eden: Don’t eat
of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. One rule given, one rule violated.
After
the Fall (the violation of the first rule), God gave additional rules to human
beings. These rules were useful in the growing up of humans in helping us
understand right from wrong, as parents or teachers do with children. These
rules include the Ten Commandments, and another 603 rules throughout the Old
Testament: a total of 613.
The
Pharisees also followed what is called the “Oral Law,” said to have also been
given at Sinai by God along with the Ten Commandments, and intended to help
them follow the 613 rules in all manner of circumstances, and with specific
methods of application and interpretation, all to deal with the problem of the
creatures (us) disobeying the Creator. The oral law was their means to fit
God’s desires for us to the practical and varying circumstances of everyday
life. In that sense, it was not a rigid and unreasonable application of rules,
but a nuanced and careful effort to be wisely and humanely obedient.
But Jesus
deeply understood that there was much more to human life than simply trying to
apply rules to govern behavior. This is a key to who Jesus is, and who we are called
to be as His followers.
Transcendent
Love
The
transcendent love of God pours through us into the world we occupy. Simple
obedience to the rules—which just by themselves cannot work—is insufficient to
the task, even when they rest on moral and ethical behavior.
God’s
concern is always about love, always about loving relationships, always about
building up and not harming. He seeks holiness from us, for He is holy. That
holiness is His nature, and it requires love from us. His concern is not about
the mere fulfillment of ritual obligations, or the following of law. Here’s how
Paul explained it:
So Christ has truly set us free.
Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the
law. … For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the
law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.
But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive everything promised to us
who are right with God through faith.
For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus it makes no difference to
God whether we are circumcised or not circumcised [that is, whether we have
followed the ritual rules]. What is important is faith expressing itself in
love. You were getting along so well. Who has interfered with you to hold you
back from following the truth? It certainly isn’t God, for he is the one who
called you to freedom. Galatians 5:1, 4-8, NLT First Edition
I
don’t know about you, but this is very scary to me. It is much easier for me to
try to follow, apply and impose rules all the time. And the rules were there
for a reason. They helped us understand right from wrong. But the true love
that allows us to live as God desires requires transcendence. And it calls us
to freedom.
That
transcendence is given to us in the simple command, “Love God” and in the
simple application, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” When we do this we have
fulfilled the law, we have transcended the law, and we have been set free by
transcendent love.
Love
is transcendent because it comes from the Source of our creation, and it
approaches people and circumstances with a heavenly view, not just a worldly
one. Where the Pharisee saw a prostitute, Jesus saw a woman needing the love of
God; where those who would stone an adulteress saw the Law violated, Jesus gave
freedom from condemnation. Where others saw a despised tax collector, or a
Samaritan, or a blind man, or a demon-possessed man, or sick or dead, Jesus saw
His beloved children, and His love brushed aside the judgments of men, invaded this
kingdom of earth and its laws (including even the laws of time and space), and
revealed the transcendent love of the Kingdom of God.
It
is to this that we are called.
In
Christ,
Pastor
George