Rules

Rules. They are like a fence, some rules are to keep us within certain boundaries and some rules are to keep harmful things out. Sometimes rules protect us from others and sometimes they protect us from ourselves. There are times that we don’t always like the rules and there are times we just don’t obey them. We disobey them by mistake and we disobey them on purpose.

I disobeyed the rules by mistake (somewhat) today. I was on the plane and the stewardess asked me to stop doing something because it was against the rules. It actually wasn’t against the rules they had outlined, but as much as I travel, I didn’t want to get on any lists as being a disobedient flier. I didn’t actually break the letter of the law, but I broke the spirit of the law.

We do the same thing with God’s Law. We know what the spirit of God’s Word says, but then we say, “what I’m doing isn’t exactly what God’s Word says!”  And so we go on breaking God’s rules because we feel that God really didn’t mean it that way. Or we think we are somehow above the Law of God. Of course there are some that will say, “we don’t live under the Law, we live under grace!”  True, but that doesn’t allow us to break God’s commandments.

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” - Romans 6:1-4.

We follow God’s commandments, not out of fear of being punished, but out of love for what He did for us through Christ. God’s laws, statutes and commandments are just like that fence I mentioned earlier. They are there to protect us from others and from ourselves.

If you want to read a great chapter about God’s rules, statues and commandments, take a moment to read through Psalm 119. Read as the psalmist praises God for His law. Let us play by the rules God has established for us, not out of fear, but out of love.

Have a great day and God bless.