You Do Know It’s Not About Rules

By

Pastor B.J. Knefley

You do know that God isn’t focused upon you keeping a set of rules, don’t you? What he’s really looking for is a relationship with you and everyone else. So why do we or where do we get the idea that somehow God is interested in our rule keeping? Is it because of the Ten Commandants? Maybe it’s because of the Old Testament laws? Or perhaps it was some pastor or church organization that said if you wanted to get right with God you needed to do certain things? I believe that God calls us first to a relationship with him and the rules come later. Not because God is a God of rules but because within the relationship, we will naturally want to follow him. Out of that relationship comes our desire to do all that He asks.

Someone recently responded to this idea by saying that this idea gives a person permission to love God and do hideous things like murder, adultery, thievery, and a host of other things. Yet Paul said in I Corinthians 5:13, “God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, ‘You must remove the evil person from among you.’ Earlier in I Corinthians 5:5 in referring the man who was found to be in sin that they were to: “Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns.”

The point is, one cannot say they love God and keep on doing the destructive things that would indicate that you do not. Loving God is about a relationship. In any relationship my actions will be the truest indicator of the real condition of my heart. If I say I love my neighbor and do horrific and mean-spirited things against them then I truly don’t love my neighbor. If I say I love God and continue to live a godless life, then I truly don’t love God. The opposite is also true too. Remember the rich young ruler found in Luke 18:18-30? He told Jesus that he had kept all the commandments. Jesus responded that he needed then to sell all that he owned and give it to the poor and then come follow him. The man became very sad. It appears that the man was able to keep the rules but not the relationship. Perhaps that could describe some of us. Think about it.