Read the Rules!

Read the Rules!
By Shirley Mitchell

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Matthew 22:36-40

My daughter Mikayla plays on a select soccer team. We enjoy the mother/daughter time when we get to travel to her games out of town. We especially love the tournaments because we get the whole weekend together. We recently went to a tournament in Nashville, TN. After a team dinner at the Rain Forest Café that weekend, the girls on the team went shopping in the café's store. Mikayla and her teammate McKenna brought back rock candy sticks to ask their parents for permission to buy them. I turned to McKenna's dad with a "Oh, let's just spoil them this time" look, but playing tough in front of them I said, "Why don't we buy one bag with two sticks in it and they share instead of each have two sticks each. McKenna's father agreed to the plan and to spoil our little angels who had played so well that day.

Well, regrettably both of our little angels have braces on their teeth. In the time that it took to walk from the restaurant's side of the mall to where our cars were parked, Mikayla had broken one of the brackets of her braces. In the two months that she has had braces, this was her second incident. When she told me the bad news, we faced each other and said simultaneously, "We have got to read the rules!" Neither of us remembered that rock candy is not allowed by the orthodontist.

Sometimes, we need to go back to our Rule Book, too. We may have learned the rules when we were a child or perhaps when we first became a Christian. However, it is easy to forget the rules, and we need a refresher course at times.

Jesus summarized the rules for us in Matthew 22. After He silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees confronted Him, trying once again to attack Him. One of them, an expert in the Law, tested him with this question: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Jesus summarized the Ten Commandments, the Law of Moses, and all that the prophets told the people, in other words the Old Testament by these two commandments. This summary is about relationships - our relationship with God and our relationship with others. When I pray with my children every night, I pray for them to love God with all their being - their heart, soul, mind, and strength. If they will put Him first, then I know their lives will be blessed. They will have His presence, strength, and comfort through their darkest days. They will have everlasting joy and satisfaction that the world can't take away. They will have discernment and wisdom for the decisions they must make.

This first and greatest commandment of Jesus summarizes the first four of the Ten Commandments. Since we are refreshing our memory on the rules, let's talk about each one of them. The first commandment is to have no other gods before God. Other gods can also be relationships, work, money, knowledge, sports, food, body image, worry, TV, internet, identity, our children's activities, pleasure, lust, sex, or a dream. The second commandment goes hand in hand with the first. It is to not have any idol - or a god that we can see in this world. While our idols may not be made of stone, wood, metal, or precious jewels, they are whatever masters us, whatever owns our hearts, whatever we trust, whatever we fear, or wherever we focus our energy. It is the root of our motivations. Why are we motivated to participate in this or choose this thing? It is anything that substitutes for God. These things can be good, but when we want them too much and more than we want God, then we are figuratively hiring a goldsmith to make a god for us to carry around.

The third commandment is to not take the name of God in vain. This means that we are to speak of His name as holy and to not defile it. It also means that since we are a people of His Name that we should conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of carrying the family Name. The fourth commandment is to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. I go to my mother's house almost every Sunday afternoon. Recently, she was ill and couldn't do her usual housework. So I told her since I was there that Sunday that I would vacuum for her. She wouldn't let me because she didn't want me to work on Sunday. It surprised me because even though I try to guard Sunday and won't work in the workplace on that day, I had become desensitized to giving God a day out of the week.

We'll talk about the rest of the Ten Commandments next time. As we leave each other for the day, let's take this refresher course on God's commandments to heart while making sure that we don't fall into the stronghold of legalism. Let's live by His rules out of the motivation that all we really want in this life is Him.

Pray with me: Oh, Lord, we exalt You. Help us to be people who know Your rules. Don't let us become desensitized to them. As generations move away from You and what becomes acceptable for some, let's remember what is acceptable to You. At the same time, may we be motivated by love and not legalism. You never desire for us to come to You doing all the right things without a passion for knowing our God. It's in the Name above all names, in Jesus' Name, Yeshua's Name, we pray. Amen.

Copyright 2009 © Christ Compels