[This is one in a series of mid-week Reflections published by Horley Baptist Church during September 2020]
New rules have been introduced: Leave your shoes, outdoor clothes and bags at the door; no food or soft drinks to be brought in; make sure your hands are clean; do not move the furniture; sit only where indicated; no crisps, popcorn or chewing gum.
Is this the government panicking about COVID and trying to enforce social distancing? They may well be, but these particular rules have been imposed because someone splashed out on a new carpet. Maybe ‘splashed’ is not the most appropriate word since that is what the rules are intended to prevent.
How do we feel about rules? To what point can we justify exploiting the loopholes in the letter of the law? What should we do about rules that are obviously badly drafted and have unwanted consequences? In his letter to Christians in Rome, Paul suggests that we should obey temporal rules wholeheartedly, especially because those who make the rules have been placed in their positions by God’s authority.
Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. [Romans 13 v1-2, NIV]
By contrast, Douglas Bader once said “Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men”. Many of us whose consider ourselves to be more ‘in-touch’ than the rule makers might be inclined to agree!
Throughout history we can identify occasions when things have been improved because someone was willing to disobey the rules. Daniel and his three friends defied the laws that Nebuchadnezzar had made but the outcome was that the king himself came to recognise God. Obadiah defied the instructions of king Ahab and thereby saved over a hundred of God’s people. All over the world people are still rebelling against despots and unjust rules.
In the early books of the Old Testament, God goes to great lengths to set out the rules that He wanted the Israelites to follow, and much of the rest of the Old Testament recounts what happened when they didn’t. We know that following the rules cannot reconcile the difference but, as EH Swinstead reminds us,
“There’s a way back to God from the dark paths of sin, There’s a door that is open and you may go in, At Calvary’s cross is where you begin, When you come as a sinner to Jesus.”
~~~~~~~~
.
Return to Mid-week Meditations
Jump to Index of Bible Passages
.
Contributed by Steve Humphreys; © the Author
