What do you think of rules? If you’re playing a game, the rules allow everyone to play the same game, unless you have some (usually small) person who invents new rules to make sure ‘I win’. If you’re around something hazardous, following the rules will keep you safe(r). If you’re employed to do something, doing it how you are told to may be what brings in your next pay packet. And keeping the laws of the land are rules should keep you out of court and prison.
So what about the 10 Commandments? What kind of rules are they? Is life just a game and these rules let us play well together? Can we make up a few more or tweak them here and there – as long as we all agree? Or are they rules for our safety – because breaking them will hurt. Or do we lose something when we break them – wealth, happiness, freedom?
We know in our hearts that being a Christian isn’t about following rules – it’s about believing in God – trusting him and being faithful to him. Might the 10 Commandments be descriptive rather than merely prescriptive? This is what God’s people do, rather than Do this to be God’s people.
“I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before me.” Dt 5:7.
Raymond