Loving God, loving each other,
Making music with my friends;
Loving God, loving each other,
And the music never ends.
They pushed back from the table
To listen to His words,
His secret plan before He had to go.
It's not complicated;
Don't need a lot of rules,
This is all you'll need to know.
Loving God, loving each other,
Making music with my friends;
Loving God, loving each other,
And the music never ends.
We tend to make it harder,
Build steeples out of stone,
Fill with explanations of The Way,
But if we'd stop and listen
And break a little bread,
We would hear the Master say
Loving God, loving each other,
Making music with my friends;
Loving God, loving each other,
And the music never ends.
It seems rather simplistic, does it not? Just love God and each other. But love is what it is all about.
God created Adam and Eve, and gave them something He didn't have to: choice. He loved mankind so much, and wanted them to love Him, that He didn't want robots. So He gave them choice. Adam and Even blew it of course, and sin entered the world.
To keep people in line, God made some rules. A lot of rules. And then He did something that doesn't make sense. He sent His Son to die on a cross for the sins of the world. Because God so loved.
Jesus was once asked what the greatest commandment was, and He said what the song I mentioned said. To love God with all of your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.
I grew up in a church with a lot of rules. And I'd go to camp meetings and revival services and hear even more. A former pastor of my church, before my time, preached from the pulpit telling the congregation to not shop at the local Christian bookstore. Why? They sold Christian rock, which he was against.
I've run across some people who seem proud of what they are against, which is sad. Christians should be known for what we are for, not for what we are against.
For most of my life, Christianity has been done the opposite of what the song says. It has been complicated. I tried keeping the rules, and felt pretty good about myself, but inside I was a mess. I had my secret sin and struggle, but as long as I looked the part, I tried to convince myself I was OK.
I constantly doubted God's love and wondered how I could ever live up to the high standard that had been set. The message I got was that it was nearly impossible to get into Heaven, and that no matter how hard I tried to be a Christian, I'd most likely miss it in the end due to some minor thing.
Not all preachers made me feel that way, including my current one. It was usually the evangelist that came for revival or camp meeting services. They seemed intent on scaring as many people to the altar as possible.
I felt I had to work to convince God to forgive me, and He was just waiting for me to mess up so He could toss me out on my ear.
I tried and tried to serve God and failed so often. I was trying to be religious and serve God without believing He loved me, and I was in more bondage than the people who had never served God.
I have come to realize its not about rules. Christianity is more than a bunch of do's and don'ts. It is a relationship with God. I am starting to care less what people think about me, and care about what God thinks of me. He loves me. I'm finally getting that, and I want to please Him, not my church, not my family, not anyone else.
It is as simple as loving God and loving others.
But on the flip side of Christianity not being a bunch of rules, we cannot ignore the fact that God still has rules and guidelines. And we aren't free to do whatever we want.
I see two extremes from where I sit. There is the extreme that our church has to tell us what we can and cannot do, because we can't get our own beliefs from God. The other, is we can do anything we want. We are not under the law, but under grace.
However, if we truly love God, we are going to seek His will on things. There should be some things we don't do because we are a Christian and we are better off not dressing a certain way, watching certain movies, listening to certain kinds of music, etc. We should not be bound by rules, but we should also not see how close we can get to being just like the world.
There is a common misconception that if the Bible clearly doesn't tell us not to do something, we can do it. Today almost sounds like how the book of Judges starts out "Every man did what was right in his own eyes." But there are things we are better off not doing for our spiritual well being, and for the second part of what Jesus said: loving our neighbor as ourselves.
If we love our neighbor as ourselves, it is going to influence some things we do. We aren't going to invite them over for a movie and show them a movie that could trip them up. We aren't going to dress in ways to tempt our Christian brothers and sisters...... I've heard a lot about the modesty issue and that it is totally the guy's fault if he battles lust with a woman dressed immodestly.... if it was YOUR son, or YOUR husband battling lust, how would you want the women working around them dressing? If you knew the guy across the street was a sex offender, how would you dress, how would you dress your daughters? Or sons. Modesty isn't just for women.
The Bible is a guidebook. It doesn't have everything spelled out in black and white, not that it matters anymore, people find ways around it anyway - but it has principles. I don't want to do anything just because my church says to, or because my parents do it, but neither do I want to throw everything out the window and live calloused to what God might want. I want the Bible to be my guidebook. I want God's will on how I dress, what music I listen to, what I view. How I spend my money and time.
See, if we follow what Jesus said is the two greatest commandments, we aren't going to try to get by with as much as we can.
I'm not married, nor will I ever be, most likely. But I know if you love your wife or husband, you aren't going to try to get by with as much as you can that might pull you away from them. You will try to find out what they like and do as much to please them. The Bible says if we love Him, we will keep His commandments...... and I believe if we love Him, we won't try to get by with as much as we can. There WILL be things we don't do because we are Christians, but what we don't do should never define us, it should never be our religion.
One of the biggest traps we can get in, is trying to live by others' expectations and rules. I don't want to do that anymore. I want to serve God out of love, and do or not do certain things to please Him. Not the church.
When I stand before God some day, He isn't going to judge me by what my church expected out of me and told me was right and wrong. He isn't going to judge me by what any man expected out of me or told me was right or wrong. He is going to judge me by how I lived according to what He said was right and wrong.
Jesus died on a cross for my sins. Its time I started going by what He wants, not man. If we truly love Him, it will all fall into place. He'll guide us, let us know how we should live. And if we love Him, we will love others.
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