Most people consider the Bible to be a bunch of rules and laws. Why would a loving God create such a burdensome constitution for His creation? Don’t do this and don’t do that! Why?
God created these rules to protect us from the consequences that follow. He didn’t make needless rules for the love of it. He didn’t make these restrictions to make out lives harder. No. He made them for a reason. If we look at the Ten Commandments for example, those commandments were there to protect the individual and then neighbour.
Let’s look at the commandments….. (Exodus 20)
- You shall have no other gods before me. This will ruin your relationship with the Creator and this caused Israel to wander in the desert for 40 years!
- You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything. This will give the inclination for people to turn away from God
- You shall not misuse the name of the Lord. This will be blasphemy of a Holy Name
- Keep the Sabbath. This is to have the people rested. The body will automatically become sick to create that rest…
- Honour your mother and father. Disobedience has caused many children to suffer because parents know better.
- You shall not murder. This causes sorrow for the deceased family and will land you in jail or worse…
- You shall not commit adultery. Causes marriages to break up and sorrow for the spouse…
- You shall not steal. This could land you in jail and loss for someone who worked hard for what they have…
- You shall not give false testimonies. Will result in innocent people going to jail….
- You shall not covet your neighbor’s belongings. Will result in envy and resentment and you will never be content with what you have…
So we see that Sin causes harm to oneself and to another.
It ruins relationships and causes your relationship with God to be made obsolete. Therefore, we who have been saved from sin should not dwell upon it no more but pursue holiness because that is what we were made to be. Holy. Just like God is Holy. God wants us to be like Him. Sin separates us from God and that is why His sacrifice on that cross was done, so that we can be brought near to Him.
So let us flee the desires of the flesh and live for righteousness, glorifying Jesus in everything that we do.
