Skip the Rules

What would you think if I told you to ignore the rules? You know the ones I’m talking about; all those Old Testament rules that churches love to talk about. I’m so sick of talking about rules all the time. It seems like rules only lead to two possible extremes: either you follow them to the letter or you scrap them and do what you want. At least those are the only two authentic options. Anything in between is hypocrisy.

It’s this issue that Paul is dealing with in his letter to the Galatians, found in chapter 5. He is trying to write to both the legalists who think the Jewish law must be followed by Christians and antinomianists who think Jesus’ sacrifice means they have no moral expectations anymore. And Paul gives us a much better solution to this issue than either extreme. He says to forget the laws and instead let the Spirit of God be our guide.

I am awful at directions. I’ve learned that if I’m going to get anywhere, there must be a voice telling me where to go. So there are two women in my life that help me get where I need to go. My wife is a phenomenal navigator who can remember how to get anywhere she’s been to once. She’s my go-to guide in the car, but if I’m alone the voice of my beloved GPS makes sure I reach my destination. Don’t bother giving me a map, I’m not interested in searching out a route, and prewritten directions have too many ways to fail. I want someone with me who knows where I am and where I should turn next.

This is life in the Spirit. The Bible isn’t meant to be your prewritten directions to take you where God wants you to go. It’s the story of God’s love for His creation. He didn’t leave us directions, He offered to go with us and help us know where to turn. And if we are willing to live with God’s Spirit in us, we don’t have to worry about the rules. God will guide each step and help us know what we should do in each situation.

And if that isn't enough, Paul reminds us that living with the Spirit brings some amazing things into our life. Imagine not only have God’s presence there in all situations, but also being given a better life. A life full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness faithfulness, and self control. I could definitely use some more of those attributes in my life. Could you?

The Fruit of Toughness

Yes, I know that Toughness isn’t mentioned as a Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, but it’s a virtue I think we need more of. And maybe it’s not that far away from an actual mentioned Fruit anyway.

Toughness has always been important to me. I don’t know if that’s a result of being the youngest in my family, never being very physically large, or the way my parents raised me, but it was very important to me that I could out-tough people. I know I learned it at least partially due to my dad’s parenting style. While always loving, my dad wasn’t too concerned when my brother or I got hurt. I remember tearing my rotator cuff in 8th grade and trying to convince him that I should see a doctor. “Nah, you just pulled a muscle,” he said. Two weeks of not being able to lift my arm finally changed his mind and we found out the damage was real. Or there is the time that I cut my finger to the bone. Trying to out-tough my injury, I held pressure on it for 45 minutes with no sign of the bleeding stopping before I went to my parents. Dad said to give it another 20 minutes before we went for stitches. I’m not criticizing my dad for this. In fact, I find myself parenting the same way. And I know my small sized boys are going to need to learn toughness because size will never be their attribute.

Even as an adult, I find toughness important. At our Slick & Twisted Retreat in January, I volunteered to be first to jump into the icy lake water to make sure it was safe. Did I really want to do that? Nope. But I was not going to be the wimp that would let someone else take that chance. And I got the bloody lip, nose, and knees for it as I hit the ice on the other side of our hole on the way down. But at least everyone learned from my jump and no one else got hurt.

So toughness may not be a high Spiritual trait but I do think it’s connected to one. To me, Faithfulness is the originator of toughness. You can afford to be tough if you have faith in your ability to handle a situation. Or you can be tough because of your faith in the One who can handle any situation.

Faithfulness should lead to a life of wreckless abandon; fearlessness due to a relationship with the Creator of everything. There are great examples of faithfulness leading to toughness all throughout the Bible. There’s Daniel, who risks a den of lions to be faithful in prayer. There are Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who dare the king to throw them in a furnace for refusing to bow to his statue.

And then there’s Paul. The toughest of the tough came out of true faithfulness in the Jesus he met on the road to Damascus.

“I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again.Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.” - 2 Cor. 11:23-28

While I worry about being tough about useless stuff, Paul was tough because of his faith in God. We could all use a little more toughness and a lot more faith in this crazy world. Then we get to follow where the Spirit leads no matter the consequences. That’s tough.