Part Seven

After my question “What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about ‘God’s Law’”, I received two responses. So I want to put those on here and then respond to them.

 First response was simply “Communication”. Great response even if it is just one word; because it is pretty much spot on.  God was communicating his requirements of being in relationship to him. But we have to be careful to not turn this into God communicating the way to salvation, more on that in just a minute.

The second response was a little more detailed, “I either think of "love The Lord your God & your neighbor as yourself". Or I think of weird purity laws that obsess about food, skin, and normal bodily functions” Awesome! I love it.

So what if the answer lies in both the questions? What if God is communicating Love the Lord your God and your neighbor, while at the same time he is communicating weird purity laws about food, skin and normal body functions? What does that sound like? To me it sounds like parenting.

There are a couple of things that parenting shows us in relation to the God and his law in this context.  First, God is always communicating to us in a way we can understand. This is most recognizable in the incarnation. God is coming, in the form of one of us, in order to communicate his love for us. Remember God is always communicating his love. Whether that be his love in compassion, his love in blessing, or his love in wrath (more on that later) God is always communicating his love. Much the same way, parents are always looking to communicate our love for our kids. Sometimes it’s by showering blessing on them, sometimes it is in disciplining them, and sometimes it is by letting our anger and wrath show, but one way or the other we are always trying to communicate love to our kids. And, we are trying to communicate to our kids that we know better than them and to trust us. And to trust us is to love us.

Love is a fickle thing. We see love as this dreamy, mystical, evasive, tangible noun that we are forever seeking. But that is not love. Love is a verb. Love is in doing. Love is when we believe something is worth fighting for, or even more worth trusting in. Our kids show love for us by obedience to our rules, trusting in us that our rules are best for them. Hugs and kisses are great, but how many times has a disobedient teenager tried to hug and kiss their way out of punishment? It does not work. Why? To suck up after disobedience just shows that they are trying to leverage love to get out of wrath. At that moment love is wrath (more on that later).

Whew, that’s a lot.

Second, rules are not meant to constrain but bring freedom and relationship. There are some weird laws in the bible. One that sticks out to me is, “Do not cook a baby goat in its mother milk.” That’s weird. I don’t cook anything in milk, and I sure wouldn’t cook goat, much less baby goat! But in the time the bible was written I am sure this was a dietary restriction for a reason. What about pork? We know that pork carries all kinds of disease and parasites, but they did not. They didn’t know proper cooking times and temperatures. How about mold, dead bodies, blood, washing hands, sexual cleanliness etc. . . ? Through those things God is trying to communicate a way to live, a way to have life, true life, without sickness and restraint.

Think about the kids again. Why do I tell my kids to be home by a certain time? Because I know that nothing good happens out on the roads after about 11pm at night. People are partying, or hiding, or just looking for trouble late at night being out and about. So I institute a rule, be home by 11. When I was a kid my mom used to make me be inside by a certain time. She wanted me to have time to eat dinner, take a shower and get plenty of sleep before the next day of school. Why? because she loves me. I saw it as her trying to stop me from having fun. I would whine and kick the ground, but the truth was she loved me and wanted what was best for me. I would love her back by trusting her law and going inside and mom would delight in me because of my obedience. My obedience did not make me her son, but it showed that I trusted and loved her.

Can you see it? I hope you are starting to get the big picture.

Before God gives the Decalogue, aka The Ten Commandments, he starts the whole thing off with, “I am the LORD your God…” (Exodus 20:2). In other words, “You are already in. I am your God you are my people. Now let me give you some ways to love me and obey me,” WOW! What if we started to view the law this way? All of it. What if we believe God cares about us so much that he gave us rules and statutes to live by? I think that would change things.

Jesus was asked one day what the greatest commandment is. And he replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Then Jesus adds, “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”  All of them Jesus? All of them. Okay so this is huge, if every Law in the bible depends on loving God and loving people then we need to take notice. I think it’s simple. When we love God with all we are we will care about what God cares about. And God cares about you, so keep his law, and God cares about people, so love his people.

So I want to wrap up with another question for you, how does this order, God loves me-> God gives me Law-> I obey law to love God back, change the way you view God if in fact this can make the eighteen inch journey from head to heart? Because the standard order has often been, God gives me law-> I obey law -> God loves me. What if you are in? What if he already loves you so much that he gave you a law to keep you from cooking a baby goat in its mother’s milk, whatever that means? But in order to love him back you trust that baby goats do not belong in their mother’s milk. This is revolutionary. This will change your life.