Rules & Law

Today I had an interesting conversation with another student about technology & keeping people from doing illegal things - how technology can be used to restrain people from doing bad things. And during the whole conversation I was thinking about rules, and law and how they apply to the Christian life.

I used to think that following rules was morally required by God. But I no longer think that you can equate following rules with spirituality, or even with following God. A lot of people, even Christians, think that following God means following a list of rules – dos & don’ts, making sure that you stay in line. And to some extent, even if I didn’t believe that was the substance of my Christian faith, I did see following rules as the evidence of my Christian faith.

But, as I got older, and my faith continued to develop, I began to see following God as much more of a relationship. For me this was a really big shift, because in many ways I’m a performance-oriented person. I lived much of my teen life trying to perform, in order to make God happy, my parents happy, and to satisfy my own perfectionistic tendencies. That was all a part of what I thought it meant to be a Christian.

I can’t even tell you what triggered the change, exactly, except that I realized that I was sort of entrapped in an artificial world of rules & regulations, rather than relationship & life. And though my following the rules was motivated out of the best of intentions, it really was a hindrance to me. The Bible says that it’s for freedom that we have been set free – we weren’t set free to be stuck following rules – because rules and law is an artificial system of keeping ourselves in check.

The truth is, rules and law do not restrain evil. They help to identify what is evil, they might even help society deal with the bad stuff, but they can do nothing to keep evil from happening, or men from making bad choices. The only thing that can do that is a change of heart that comes through the power of the Holy Spirit.

And you know what? In letting go of the rules, I have found freedom. I’m free from the bondage of the evil that lived within my heart, because God has freed me from that… but I’m also free from living in a world defined by rules & regulations. I’m free to love God, to love others, and to do what I believe God is showing me that I should do, without making following the rules/the law my main concern.

That’s not to say that I don’t follow the law – because I do, to the best of my ability. I believe that for the most part, the law in our country is set up to keep us safe & to prevent problems, and b/c the govt has authority over me, I will respect those laws. And even when I break them, knowingly or unintentionally, I always do it with the understanding that if I were to get caught breaking the law, I would pay the penalty just like anyone else – if I were speeding I would pay the ticket, etc. I don’t consider myself above the law… I guess I just don’t see the law as being the absolute point – it’s a means to an end, and there are times when the law not only needs to be flexible – it IS flexible.

It would be a lot easier if the law were not flexible, not movable. In life & society, it would be nice because we would always know what to expect. In the Christian life, it would be nice because then we would always know what we were expected to do. And I think that a part of every person longs for that kind of certainty. But as a Christian, even as a human, I think we are called to freedom, and that freedom comes with a lot of responsibility. It's not just about not breaking the law - now it's about looking for the good that we can do, the things that we can do and be that will best benefit the kingdom of God. That is a much higher calling. It's also much more difficult.