So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality. Don’t let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels, saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud, and they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body. For he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it.
You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”? Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.
School without rules
School is starting again in NY this week. One of the first packets of information students bring home is the discipline code or student handbook explaining the rules. We live in a rule saturated society out of necessity due to our propensity towards evil behavior.
Churches can have a lot of rules too. I am part of a denomination with more rules (we prefer expectations, it sounds nicer) than most denominations. We have lots of “do not…” expectations for our members in an attempt to provide guidelines for holy living. I am not saying our expectations are wrong, but as Paul clearly states, they have done nothing to help conquer our internal evil desires.
No matter how many rules you require your members to follow you cannot change a person’s heart by enforcing rules. The glorious message of the cross is that religion (enforced rule living) is done away with and a new relationship between the creator and created has been consummated. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Why then do we insist on creating rules to define this freedom?
The answer lies in Mike’s blog yesterday. We want results now. We want measurable progress reports and the only way we can see that is by establishing a set of criteria (rules) to measure our changing progress against.
God is not issuing report cards at 10 week intervals, he is changing our hearts. Rules are irrelevant when our hearts our right before God. If our inner desire is to love God with all we are and have and to love our neighbors like ourselves we do not need rules to tell us what not to do. Through Christ we can escape living in a measured box of rules for a life of freedom in love.
Thank you God for breaking the rules religion and I set up to determine what is right and wrong. Thank you for setting me free from myself to live in the freedom of love. Help me each day to experience the liberty that comes from the change you are working in my inner being. My desire is to totally live in your love. - Dan Jones
Haunted by the shadows
Remember the fuss some time ago about whether or not certain political candidates wore an American Flag lapel pin? We live in the shadows of the truly important. I remember church members getting angry because the pastor took the youth out to pizza Sunday evening. He broke the Sabbath, they said. We live in the shadows of the truly important. They let their kids go trick-or-treating! She went to an “R” rated movie! He went to the bar with the softball team! Christ-followers of Paul’s day and ours have an uncanny knack for living in the shadows of the truly important.
I don’t. Instead, I struggle with shadows haunting me. It’s taken most of my adult life to step beyond the haunting.
Rejecting a rules approach to life, especially after growing up with particularly suffocating rules, I found it easy to fall into unhealthy (and therefore unholy) practices. Thinking one is dashing out of the shadows and into God’s glorious light, the newly freed person forgets he or she is not running about willy-nilly, living any way except those ways that even hint at the former rules.
Sabbath is one good example. I’ve rightly jettisoned the crusty layers of rules generations of sincere Christians accumulated, just like the generations of Pharisees before them. Problem was, I feared developing a weekly rhythm that looked anything like the old rigid patterns. I’ve struggled to develop refreshing, Christ-centered Sabbath in my life. And the truth is, following Jesus means stopping when he stops; sitting along the road, munching on granola and wiling away an afternoon – when he does; slipping away from the needs of people for a day of worship, prayer and napping – when he does; even setting aside one day every once and awhile, maybe even most weeks, and refusing to have any business contact – when he does.
Living free of the shadows doesn’t just mean stepping beyond them. It also means stepping beyond the fear of them.
Lord Jesus, I recommit myself to faithfully following you. Thank you for steadily leading me beyond both the shadows and the fear of them. Grant me growing sensitivity to you through the promptings of your Spirit. - Mike Leamon
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