This week I have been thinking about human rules and laws, while feeling irritated about the abusive handling of this inquiry related to Donald Trump. Rules and laws have a purpose: they keep us within a range of acceptable behavior. If we stray outside the range of acceptable behavior, we can be hurt or damaged, or we may hurt someone else. I get that. Sometimes an explanation is sufficient to explain why we went outside the lines. Sometimes it goes further. For instance, we might punish a child for going outside the lines, for the purpose of encouraging or enforcing actions that need to be revised. I was thinking about Pink Floyd’s song, “A Brick in the wall”. It suggests that we do not need to be taught or follow rules. We just need to blend in and be a part of the crowd (“Another brick in the wall”). In reality, if the crowd is wrong, we must be prepared to explain truth. Colossians 8 makes this point directly, in saying that our reality is in Jesus Christ.
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
Paul and Timothy are writing here. In Colossians 8:16,17 they point out that some rules are so unimportant that they do not even qualify as needing a response (they are a shadow of things to come). He also explains why some people’s judgement is irrelevant:
18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. 19 They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
When the rules are clear and easy to follow, it is a simple matter to follow the rules. But what happens when we are leading a life of self indulgence and we are not following the rules? At that stage, rules have no value, and we are not seeing the big picture. We are not being effective Christians.
20 Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 22 These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.
I fear that some people can have such a limited view on what rules are for that their focus becomes particular details and not a big picture. This reminds me of the Indian fable about the Blind Men and the Elephant (read John Saxe’s poem here).
Some will argue that this parable is flawed — that truth requires that we know all religions in order to find real truth. The reality is, we do not need to see the whole world’s perspective when we are talking about the elephant in the room. We are describing the elephant, not what is behind the elephant, nor where the elephant is located in the big scheme of things. We simply need to expand our perspective of God in light of the Holy Spirit, so we are not shortchanging our understanding of God and Christianity. In summary: It is vital that we make decisions with a focus on God’s rules, and not on a minor picture we developed over time, in the course of our own experience
