Part 1 discussed and illustrated the difficulties we can get into when we attempt to interpret man’s rules as if they were God’s rules. Let’s use the simple illustration of speeding (even as little as 5mph over) and Paul’s teaching in Romans 13:1-2:
Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.
Proper authority is from God and should be patterned after His authority: particularly justice, fairness, and equity tempered with mercy. We must not forget that authority is enforcement of commands. Authority is not a person or committee or bureau that is consumed with making suggestions for others. Authority has the right to imposed penalty and punishment.
Prior to the gospel and the later revelations to Peter about freedom in dietary restrictions (Acts 10:9-19), the mere changing of the diet and the principle behind it expanded the gospel itself! Often I hear that Jesus replaced the law with grace. “The only laws that are applicable in the Old Testament are those that are repeated in the New Testament.” That guideline is easy to remember, and that is precisely what makes me suspicious of it.
It is incumbent upon us that we understand the principles of what changed from the Old Testament to Paul’s near disregard of Old Testament laws in the New Testament. The dietary laws are an excellent example to show this.
Leviticus 11 (Deuteronomy 14 to a lesser degree) is the primary chapter. Leviticus 11 has 47 verses. Depending on the Bible version, “unclean” is used 32 times and “abomination,” 8 times. As I proposed in Part 1, “unclean” was a health issue. Centuries later we have learned about trinchinosis, which is particularly carried by swine and wild game. Proper cooking is essential in killing this harmful parasite. This parasite can cause problems from muscle soreness to death. Even today there is no cure, but there is treatment for the symptoms.
In the ancient world education was informal, sporadic, and mixed with folklore and insight. Medicine and treatment was worse. If a disease was incurred, endurance was the ultimate fix in most cases. The dietary laws protected the Jews from disease. In fact, the phrase “unclean to you” [my emphasis] is used 12 times in Leviticus 11. God was not sitting in heaven outraged because His people ate pork chops. Given the circumstances required for proper cooking (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichinosis#Food_preparation), it was far easier, safer, and pedagogically sound to simply tell his people not to eat pork than it was to give Moses a divine cookbook.
When the Lord revealed to Peter the vision of eating unclean animals (which opened the eating of these animals as well as spreading the gospel to “unclean” people), the Lord also revealed there was nothing inherently sinful about eating pork. Dietary laws are relative. In contrast, sins against God are always wrong.
Absolutely no effort is needed to define and categorize outward behavior as sinful. It is easy to see someone eat a pork chop. It is easy to measure someone driving over the speed limit. In your own memory and imagination let the images flow of all the outward behavior that have been decried as “sinful.” I can remember when playing cards and listening to Elvis Presley was sinful.
Rule after rule after rule can be devised, under the guise of authority which has the right to enforce them, that will make life miserable and create endless debates and footnotes to what is “right and wrong.”
As my Greek teacher told me years ago, “That’s bologna no matter how you slice it.”
The gospel removed the law, but not all law. The heart of the law which is still sin before God was kept: murder, stealing, bearing false witness, etc. The arbitrary laws were removed. There are laws that change with the times, the culture, the circumstances. Those were removed precisely because they are arbitrary and not absolute!
In college I remember a young man who wanted to please God in all that he did; yet, he was constantly fretting as if he had overlooked something in pleasing God. He attended to his behavior as if it were a black sweater that could have not the least speck of dust or lint upon it. Frankly, he was so busy inspecting his sweater that he missed life around him.
If you choose to look at the Lord as a judge, then you do need to attend to your sweater. If the Lord is your Father, then you are free to learn, play, explore, and socialize as long as you do not harm others. (The world is correct when it says “you may do as you please as long as you don’t harm others.” The key difference between that view and Christianity is that we do everything, even eating or drinking, in order to bring glory to God.)
There is no willy-nilly here for my being allowed to do as I please. Even though I may not be sinning against God, I may be offending the standards of others. Why do I care about that? So I can witness to them. If we offend others, we weaken our witness to them.
I do not intend to resist the ordinances of man. Is this because I’m concerned about sinning before God? Do I need to fret that I have nailed Jesus to the cross because I went over the speed limit by 5mph? Is my life driven by such arbitrary and endless commands? No, I conform to them for the same reason that Paul conformed in 1 Corinthians 9 … so he could win others.
Let us never forget why we are left on earth. It is to bear witness. When we consider the purpose of the church, we typically list four or five goals: worship, fellowship, evangelize, teach, encourage. Look at that list carefully. Only one item in that list will not be in heaven. Which is it? Evangelize! Everything else we will do in heaven, but we won’t evangelize. That ends when we die.
Everything we do or conform ourselves to should be for the purpose that the Lord has called all Christians to … bear witness for Him by our lives and words. When we set our behavior on the purpose of helping others to love Jesus more, that is much, much different than checking for lint on our sweaters.
If you wish to push the pedal to the metal and speed, speed, speed, then you will most likely receive a ticket and pay a fine. Hopefully, you will not cause a wreck and hurt someone. I’d rather simply obey and not have either. If someone asks me, “Do you speed,” then I can answer, “No.” If I am asked why, then I have a chance to witness, “I do not speed because I wish to bring glory to the Lord and help others.”
The Lord has given us freedom from the trammels of the law. Let’s use that freedom to bring glory to Him.
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