Rules, Rules, Rules

I seem to have stumbled on a topic that is much bigger than I had originally thought. I don’t really know why ‘the law in the life of a Christian’ has been on my mind so much. Maybe it’s because I’m coming to the end of Deuteronomy with my kids. We’ve spent what feels like a year or more going through the books of Moses. Explaining the nocturnal emissions to the boys was a load of fun. Actually, I chickened out. I told them that when they get older that they’ll wet the bed. I think that’s all the information that they need to know.

The question that I asked a week or so is quite similar to a question which was addressed in the early church. What are Christians allowed to do?

In Acts 15, some of the Jewish believers were insisting that non-Jewish believers needed to be circumcised in order to claim ‘Christian Status’. (If there is such as thing as having Christian Status.) It was a big issue, one which brought to life the direct confrontation of being saved by the underserved grace of Christ Jesus, versus the old way of trying to do the things that God told them to do in the Mosaic Law.

Peter challenged the Jews who insisted on circumcision by asking a question; “So why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear?” Acts 15:10 As hard as many devout Jews had tried, none were ever able to fully live up to the requirements and expectations of the law.

Amid the discussion over the issue, James takes a stand and lists four things that people who claim to follow Christ need to be serious about. He doesn’t give a long list. In fact, he makes it quite clear why they are to place few solid boundaries for the believing life. He tells the apostles and elders, “...My judgment is that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.” Acts 15:19

He’s saying, ‘In my opinion, I don’t think that we should expect non-Jewish converts to the observe the whole law because it would discourage them from following Christ.’ So he lists four things that they need to stay away from if they want their name to stay on the membership registry. They need “to abstain from eating food offered to idols, from sexual immorality, from eating meat of strangled animals and from consuming blood.” Acts 15:20

That was it. They weren’t supposed to eat food that they knew had been sacrificed to another god. They weren’t allowed to drink blood or eat animals that they found already dead. They were also called to abstain from sexual immorality. Check. So lying, cheating, stealing, murder, kidnapping and sorcery are all in right? That doesn’t sit well with you does it? Good. I don’t think that it should.

To be honest, this attitude that I see in James and the disciples is challenging in a way. I mean, if you read Peter’s letters in the New Testament, he really isn’t a softie with regards to sin. Yet here, they only list four things that a Gentile believer is to abstain from. The reason why the list seems to be so short, is so as not to discourage anyone from coming to Christ.

Imagine if we were to follow this completely in our churches. (And I am NOT suggesting that we do.) What would our churches look like? We let the drunks drink, we let liars lie and we let thieves steal, all the while keeping their name on the church membership. Where is the repentance? When we believe, we are called to repent and to be baptized into His body; the church. If these are the only 4 things that we need to abstain from, my question is this; Repent from what?

Drinking blood is just gross anyway. I suppose vampires really have lost their souls. I don’t believe that eating animals that we find dead makes for good health. Food offered to idols...I think it’s still okay to eat at the Chinese buffet, as long as you don’t witness the food being offered on some Buddhist altar. (Is there such a thing?) Maybe leave the fortune cookie. :-)

If nothing else, this should reveal to us how serious God is about these things and why the issue of sexual immorality needs to be where we take our battle with sin absolutely seriously. There is little room even in this ‘lawless’ faith for us to live lives that intentionally go against God’s standards for human sexuality.

There are many aspects of the law that we really don’t even need to be bothered about; Things such as dietary laws and instructions for sacrifices and the priesthood. If The Lord is willing and time allows, I might work through this further.

If you have no idea of what God wants for our sex lives, reading Leviticus 18 might be a good start.

Do thieves, drunkards, liars and kidnappers can keep the fish on the back of their car?