Thursday, April 06, 2006
The problem with rules based religion is that often, minor things are emphasized while the major issues of life are ignored. Jesus told the Pharisees that they were overly concerned with the wrong things."Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess." (Matthew 23:23-25)
Jesus did not say that observing customs and traditions was evil. Neither did he say that those things shouldn't be done. He said that we are in serious trouble when we begin to think that certain observances or our outward appearance makes us holy or acceptable to God. A modest appearance and pure life should be the result of wanting to be separate from the evil associations of worldliness, not born out of following the rules/traditions of men.
The heart of the matter is a matter of the heart as one preacher was fond of saying. When we reduce our walk with God to following a dress code or a set of moral rules, we run the risk of letting our guard down by thinking that we have "attained" some invisible level of spirituality that reduces our need to be repentant and humble.
Paul the Apostle, wrote "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus." (Phillipians 3:12). One reason that God was able to use Paul so greatly is because the Apostle realized that whatever sins and temptations he was able to master in this life was only by God's grace. Paul realized the dangers of rules based religion when he wrote the following, "Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not; Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?" (Col 2:20-22)
Paul asks us why, if we have renounced all hope of salvation from the dead works of observances, do we still insist on trusting in the observance of rules and codes for salvation?
WARNING: DO NOT TOUCH THE EDGES OF THIS POST!
posted by Steve Stevens at
5:54 AM
