Matthew 7:1-5 · Matthew 23:23-24 · Luke 7:33-34 · Ephesians 4:32
What We Need Are More Rules
This sermon challenges the belief that God is primarily rule-focused and legalistic, arguing instead that a grace-oriented view of God transforms how we treat others in life's gray areas.
Introduction
We continue to look at the subject, “Dumb things Christians believe.” Ever watched children play games? They often will make up rules as they go along. Sometimes the rules can become quite interesting. Sometimes the rules evolve because one is losing and wants to change the direction of the game. But allow the same set of children to play the game again and the rules will be different. As children grow older rules become more important. They learn that rules cannot be changed and that games played by rules become more fair. Sometimes we may want the rules to change but when the rules are applied to all then we can play the game with greater confidence knowing that the game will be played consistently by all participants.
Rules allow us to know what is right and wrong. They allow us to know boundaries and limits. Even obscure situations have to be governed by a rule. For instance, in the game of baseball, how long does a pitcher have to throw a ball to a batter? (20 sec) There is a rule to govern that. In fact, the rule that governs the pitcher’s time for pitching also governs the catcher and the umpire. The catcher is to return the ball to the pitcher promptly (in other words he cannot hold the ball) and the umpire must call a “ball” should he decide that the pitcher is intentionally delaying the game by not pitching in a timely fashion. All professional games have very clear and distinct if not obscure rules. This allows the game to be played as fairly as possible.
Do you think God has obscure rules? We use the term “commands” but they are really rules. Have you ever thought about God’s rules or commands? Are there a lot of them? Some regard the Bible as God’s rulebook. Our view of God determines how we view his word. There is no doubt that God has some commands. There is no doubt that he intends for those commands to be kept. And there is no doubt that our failure to keep those commands is sin. The real question is what is your view of God? Is your view of God as one who is nit-picking? Or is he a God who is slow to anger abounding in love and faithfulness? Are God’s commands obscure or are they clear? And how many commands God have? How we think about God’s rules and our response to his commands, comes out of our view of God. We will spend our study time looking again at God and his rules and see if we can make sense of all of this.
Our View of God
If we see God as a harsh ruler, then we will treat others in the same way. If we see God as a benevolent king, then we will treat others with the same compassion. If we believe that God is waiting to pounce on our every mistake and sin, then we are ready to pounce. If we believe that God while disappointed with our sin is compassionate and gracious, we will treat others in the same way. The way we treat people says something about what we believe about God. I am going to say this on the front end and will say it later so that there will be no misunderstanding. There are some things that are wrong. It is wrong to steal, murder, commit adultery, and lie. When such sins are committed, they need to be repented of. But I am not talking about these areas tonight. I am talking about the gray areas of life.
I believe this is what Jesus is addressing in Matthew 7 when he talks about judging others. In just a few sentences later, he acknowledges that we are to be fruit inspectors about a person’s life (7:20), but in 7:1-5, he seems to be talking about the gray areas of life. There are some things that are just not so clear cut. There are times that we can’t give an answer for every religious question. There are times in which we cannot know everything about a person or a situation and in those times our view of God affects how we will treat others. We can hold people to a higher standard than we hold ourselves. We can be hypocritical. We can see the error in another’s life and not see the same error in our life. Let me give you some examples of what I am talking about.
Is it OK to pray to the Holy Spirit? Yes. But some will want to nit-pick. They will talk about praying to God and Jesus but not to the Spirit as if God, the Father is left out any prayer we offer. What about smoking? Can a person go to heaven being a smoker? Sure. Doesn’t it harm our bodies. Sure it does. I don’t smoke and don’t endorse smoking. I don’t want my children to smoke. But overeating, lack of sleep, lack of exercise, and driving a car also harm our bodies, but we don’t talk about those things. Years ago, Reuel Lemmons was one of several ministers on a panel to discuss religious issues. The question was asked, “Can a person who smokes go to heaven?” Reuel rose from his chair walked to the podium, cleared his throat and said, “Yes.” and then turned and sat down. By some reactions in the room you would have thought that he had endorsed Hitler as a good guy. Our view of God affects how we treat others.
I grew up listening to sermons that focused on perfection. And we prayed “help me to be better tomorrow than I was today.” And the focus was on trying harder to be better people. I’m all for trying to be better people, but in the process of trying to be better we may see God as being hard, stern, and unyielding in his view of us. The truth is that we can’t get good enough to be perfect. And if we are wrong in one part of the rules, we are just as good as having broken them all. Being right 99 out of 100 times still makes you imperfect. Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades and if the standard is perfection then there is no way to meet the standard. If we believe that God demands perfection, then we will treat people with perfectionistic standards.
What Does God Want?
So what does God want? Certainly God wants to keep his rules, but those rules must be tempered with an attitude of compassion and grace just in the same way God has treated us in the same way. In Matthew 23:23-24 in one of Jesus’s many poignant moments, he tells the Pharisees that they have missed the boat. They demand perfection but in the process they leave out justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the former without neglecting the former. That’s what I’m saying. We must keep the rules of God, but we must practice mercy and grace because none of us will do this perfectly.
You can be theologically precise and religiously compulsive about obeying the rules and miss the point. Not everything fits into a nice little cubby hole. In Luke 7:33-34, the religious leaders said John was demon possessed because he refused wine and rich foods and they said Jesus was a glutton and drunkard because he did. Go figure. The truth is we have a hard time making sure to get people in the right category and when we do that we end up leaning more toward perfection than compassion. Our view of God affects how we treat people.
One more example and then we’ll wrap up. In my early teenage years, there was much discussion about women wearing pants to the assembly. Without getting into all the arguments, you may be old enough to remember such discussions. You know what finally settled the issue. One of the elders had a daughter who lived on her own and came straight from work one Wednesday night in her pants suit. And that pretty much ended the discussion. No announcement was made that it was permissible but it became a non-issue. Our view of God affects how we treat people.
Let me state again---God has some definite rules and we must try our best to keep those rules. But the point of this lesson has been to help us rethink our view of God. We need to be more oriented toward grace than rules. We need to more often carry out God’s rule of Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you.” When we begin to think that God is nit-picking, then we start to pick on each other. And it is just plain dumb to believe that about God. After all, hasn’t God treated you with far more grace and compassion than picking you apart? Our view of God affects how we treat others.
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