Let us Love and Sing and Wonder

I sometimes wonder the usefulness of certain rules that we Christians create out of our own judgment. Why do we need to put loads on our brothers and sisters who are eager to follow Christ? Why do we care so much about what people might think of our family, our church, or our organization? And by “people” I’m mostly talking about Christians.
I’m realizing that the rules we set up ourselves are usually not for our own betterment or our own spiritual growth, they are there for the world around us. We say we have certain rules so that we would not offend other Christians, the purpose of the rules is praiseworthy but when we think about it, many of us obey them because if we don’t, then people will be offended at us. Do I make sense? Our desire is no longer to care for our brothers and sisters with a (and I don’t say that lightly) weaker faith, but it is to care for our own reputation as a Christian family, Christian church or Christian organization. There is no more meaning to the rules when we act that way. If we would truly care about the saints, we wouldn’t care so much about our little reputations and how people might see us. We all want to look good and spiritual, but we aren’t good and spiritual.

I am mainly thinking about external rules, like how one is expected to dress at church or to look like in everyday life. Why do we add burden upon burden on our back and the backs of other Christians when Christ has called us to freedom? I believe that the freedom Christ has called us to usually do not bear the meaning we think it does. I don’t know much about this freedom so take my words as words and words only.
Christ’s call to freedom does not mean that we can do as we please, it means that those who are mature in the faith should stoop down to the level of the saints who aren’t mature enough to understand the big picture of what freedom in Christ is. The mature are called to be gentle with the weak and help them grow so that they come to maturity and then see what freedom is, that they don’t need all these rules and should not think that if some Christians drink wine or doesn’t wear dress pants at church, it’s fine!

I do not believe that Christ wants us to follow a bunch of external rules so we would look good in the eyes of Christians, so that we would not offend them. I believe that there is a proper time and place to observe these “unwritten” laws though. When I go to a different church, I always inquire to my friends how they dress at that church, so I am not offending anybody. I think that if Jesus would be ruling –physically- over the Church today, many laws and rules we have would be abolished. He would call us to freedom again. Christ wants us to put our own selves out of the way so we can love and care for others. Why should we tell people how to live –according to our own thinking of what a good Christian should look like and live and our own interpretation of the Word?

A.W.Tozer wrote:
“Be hard on yourself and easy on others. Carry your own cross but never lay one on the back of another.”

Let us live for Christ. Let us be free. But most of the time today, we are called to bend to the rules our brothers and sisters hold on to so dearly and then help them grow and see that Christ calls us to freedom, not to a set of rules, He calls us to peace and love that are true, not superficial and based on the places we go or the way we shave (or not) for church. We may have rules for ourselves, but let is remain to ourselves only. May the burdens we create be on our own shoulders, because we believe it’ll help us to be more like Christ (knowing that legalistic spirits are wrong). May we never start thinking that if others don’t live as we do, they’re not as good as us.

It’s between the Lord Jesus and us. What others may think is between the Lord and them. He is Ruler over all. Let us seek the good of His saints, in whatever way Jesus calls us to love them. Sometimes, I think Jesus wants us to “offend” fellow Christians in order to open their eyes… But there is a time for that and it is never done because of anger or of a “I am more holy so I know better” attitude. It is done with a heart that longs to see Jesus’ children understanding the truth, a deep love for them.

There is much more to say about this, but I don’t want to be too long, it’s been long enough. Let’s just be smart and full of love. Let’s consider why we think the way we do about rules and why we expect certain things from people and if these expectations are good or just burdensome.

By the way, I am probably worse than most people at that love command. I may write about it, but I don’t do much about it. Pray for me. I have such a strong legalistic spirit.