“Determining God’s truth is quite simple!” Really? “Yes! Just figure out the correct do's and don’ts—then do the correct do's.” Once as Jesus taught his own people (the Jews), he said they reduced understanding God to a set of do's and don’ts (look at the Sermon on the Mount—Matthew 5-7). He declared God and His truth was more complex than that! They thought God’s law was just about do's and don’ts. Jesus said the do's and don’ts were about relationships. A failure to grasp the relationships was a major violation of God’s do's and don’ts.
Commonly the Jews decided much before Jesus that God revealed Himself fully through His Law. John wrote that God’s truth was realized through Jesus Christ (John 1:17). It was extremely difficult for those Jews to grasp their need of a person—in addition to a Law—to approach God!
That Law was merely an arrow pointing them to a person! To them that was unthinkable (see Romans 3:21, 22)! Their do's and don’ts were complete—nothing else was needed! It was one of those “do not study—just do as you are told” things. Someone else figured it out—all that was left was to follow their conclusions.
Basic problems with do's and don’ts: (1) Too often they are someone’s opinions. (2) Too often they represent our desires instead of God’s instructions. (3) Too often they contain “convenient” loopholes. (4) Too often they are about our wants, not God’s values.
There is more to being godly than crossing t’s and dotting i’s. Are you God’s person inwardly and outwardly?
Link to other Writings of David Chadwell