Relationship Not Rules

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”                                                                                                                                 –John 13:34

Many people have a false image of God as a fire-breathing, cosmic cop waiting for us to slip up so we might be eternally condemned. We may have acquired this mistaken understanding about God from overpowering bosses, controlling pastors, or legalistic parents. These types of heavy-handed control freaks have rules for everything. Basically, they have two rules. Rule #1, I’m the boss. Rule #2, refer to Rule #1. By the way, to me, a legalistic parent is one who gives discipline but has no relationship. Healthy children come out of an environment where discipline exists within loving relationships.

God gave the Ten Commandments to the Israelites immediately after their deliverance from the Egyptians in the Exodus. Rule #1, “I am the Lord your God…You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2-3). To someone far from God, this sounds like a pretty jealous and demanding God. Considering the fact that eight of the Ten Commandments begin with, “No,” God could appear as a negative, sinner-condemning kind of being. Just wondering: Do our children learn to say, “I love you,” before they learn to say, “No?” Do we teach relationship or rules?

The truth about God, whether we feel it or not, is that God is love and desires an intimate relationship with you and me. The Ten Commandments serve as the bare minimal requirements for God’s people. They are the least we must do if we are to represent the people of God. The Ten Commandments may have been written in the negative because these acts destroy life and the community of God’s people. They simply must NOT be tolerated.

God walking with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden describes God’s intention and ultimate end for humans. Both the Catholic and Protestant catechisms tell us that God created man to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Notice the word, “enjoy.” The catechisms further define man’s purpose as to know, love, and serve Him. Notice that know and love come before serve.

God desires a people for His own possession who will love Him and want to serve Him from an inward desire rather than from an outward observance. God does not seek a collection of moral robots that legalistically follow a set of rules. Jesus summarized the Ten Commandments with two: Rule #1, Love God, and Rule #2, Love your neighbor. At the Last Supper after Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, He gave a new commandment to His followers, a new Rule #1, “Love one another, as I have loved you” (John 13:34). Our God is a God of love who gave Himself for us and desires us to respond to His love by loving Him back and loving others.

Is your relationship with God and others lacking love? Let us respond to God’s love offered to us in Jesus Christ. Then, out of the love of God abiding in us by the Holy Spirit, let us offer love to others.