RULES FOR FREEDOM

Dr. Richard J. Henderson November 16, 2008

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John 15:12-17
Exodus 20:1-17

Introduction

Imagine a family that raises their children with no rules, no responsibility, and no accountability. If a child goes near a hot stove, no one says "no." If a son or daughter steals, no comment is made. If one of the children hits a neighbor, no action is taken. How would those children grow up?

They probably wouldn't have any friends if they kept hitting people. They might very well be scarred because nobody stopped them from hurting themselves. They would certainly be confused. Actually some of us know dysfunctional families where there are virtually no rules. Some of those children become "guests of the state" as we say.

An important part of a parent's love is to provide healthy rules, to keep our children from harm, to teach them right and wrong, to make them better, more compassionate people. Good parenting is making and enforcing good rules.

The good news for us is that our God loves us enough to give us good rules. Some of the first of those are the Ten Commandments.

I

What I find amazing about these commandments is not how many of them there are, but how few and how short they are.

Just try to imagine what it would look like to have all the federal laws, rules, and regulations stacked in one place. Wouldn't it be a stack of papers at least a mile high? Just the rules that govern driving a car fill huge volumes.

Think of all the rules God could have given us. We could be talking about the 95,761,432 commandments. But instead, God only gave us ten. They don't even cover half of a page in the Bible.

Of course, it didn't take long before the people of Israel took those ten and expanded, explained, amplified them, and filled in the vague areas of what they mean. So, we have the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy means literally the second law. It is the Ten Commandments expanded to hundreds of laws and rules. But originally God only gave us ten.

II

All of these commandments point to life - healthy, safe, moral, fulfilling life. Remember a couple of weeks ago we talked about happiness as believing in something greater than ourselves and living faithfully by what we believe. The Ten Commandments can lead to happiness because these are rules from the God we believe in.

To follow these rules is part of what it means to live faithfully by what we believe.

These rules are made for our well-being. Aren't we better off if we haven't murdered or stolen? Think of how much more content we are when we don't covet what other people have? Isn't our life better when we don't lie? I have a friend who says "I can't lie because I can't remember well enough what I've told people, and I'd get caught every time!"

These are rules for healthy living. If we break them, we only harm ourselves. G. K. Chesterton reminded us, "If a man who is walking comes to the edge of a cliff and keeps walking, he will not break the law of gravity. He will prove it." God loves us enough to give us good rules so we won't hurt ourselves.

III

The Ten Commandments are restrictions on our freedom that allow us real freedom. Yes, the Ten Commandments limit what we do, but by living within them we find fulfillment, meaning, and genuine freedom.

One of the alternatives to God's rules is to make up our own rules and try to live by what we think is best. The theologian William Willimon talks about what happens when we try to live by our own rules: "We get our directives, not from on high, off a mountain and two stone tablets from the God who created us and the world and therefore ought to know something about it, but rather our ethics arise out of our 'personal experience,' out of our 'raised consciousness,' flying by the seat of our pants, and 'What seems personally right to me.' To tell the truth, the sad wreckage of such ungrounded living is all around us."

Willimon wrote this before the Enron scandal, the collapse of Wall Street, and the other disastrous events we have gone through. How much did those scandals grow out of lying, stealing, and coveting what others had? Worst of all, how much of it is the result of breaking the commandment, "You shall have no other gods before me?" When we follow the Ten Commandments, we are not only obeying our God, but we are living the healthy, moral, fulfilling life God wants for us.

IV

It's important to see the Ten Commandments in the context of when they happened. Remember, the Hebrews were held in slavery in Egypt. They had no freedom. They were not allowed to make decisions, but had to follow the dictates of their owners. They were told what to do. The Egyptians laid down laws.

Then God led them out of slavery and, on the way to the Promised Land, gave them the Ten Commandments. If they want to lead a good life and be faithful to God, they now knew how to live. As they journeyed into freedom, God helped them by laying down some good rules. These aren't laws like the Egyptians' - abusive, arbitrary, and oppressive - these commandments are healthy and help people live good lives.

V

The order in which events happen is important too. God acts to set the Hebrews free from slavery, and then gives them the commandments. Their obedience flows from their thankfulness for what God has done. Remember how the commandments begin? "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of house of slavery."

It is not because they were obedient that God led them to freedom. They didn't earn their liberation because they were such good people. God gave them freedom because God loved them. After they were free, he gave them rules for faithful living. They obey because they are thankful.

So today, it is not that our obedience to the law leads to God's love. We obey because we are thankful for what God has done for us. To say it another way, God doesn't love us because we are obedient, we are obedient because God loves us.

Conclusion

Washington Duke of Durham, North Carolina did a great deal for the people of his area. He was a businessman and a great philanthropist. Duke University is named after him.

When the ledgers of Washington Duke's business were found he had listed in detail every week the income and expenses of his business - salaries, sales receipts, and production costs.

On those ledger sheets each week was "tithe." Every week Duke took one tenth of his profits and gave it away. It was something he learned in his Methodist church at home. He knew it was the right thing to do. It was his habit every week.

Duke never took a course on "Prudent Philanthropic Practices," we don't know that he ever spent any time agonizing over what was the right percentage; he knew that the Bible said to set aside ten percent and he believed it. He followed the rules.

Duke was an outstanding man. So much of his greatness was because he had learned what was right and he lived by the rules he knew were true.

Amen

© Richard J. Henderson 2008