Thursday, April 24, 2008

I Value The Sabbath

I recently received a query from an excellent friend from days past when I served as a Seventh-day Adventist pastor. He discovered that I now pastor a Free Methodist Church and he asked me this question: "Do you still think the Sabbath is an important part of the commandments?"

In this entry I share briefly some thoughts related to the Sabbath. My prayer is that each of us focuses more clearly on the blessing of God's gracious gift of Sabbath in our lives.

Yes, I feel the Sabbath is an important part of the commandments. I feel the commandments are all equally true and that God's good and wise counsel remains good and wise.

I don't see the ten commandments as "binding" on the Christian in relation to our gaining salvation. St. Paul makes clear our salvation is "not by works of the law" but by receiving the Gospel of justification through faith in Christ. But the commandments reflect God's excellent principles lovingly given to help us live the good life with God, self and others.

I recently read a fun little story on this topic: A country pastor is out fishing on his day off. A parishioner spots him and says, "You know pastor, the Devil doesn't take a day off." "And if I didn't take a day off," replies the pastor, "I'd be just like him!"

In Deuteronomy the Sabbath command is repeated as part of the 10 commandments, only its justification is different (than the one given in Exodus 20). Deuteronomy 5:15 states: "Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day."

In other words, not only are rest and relaxation necessary for staying creative (Gen. 20), but without them, we're little more than than slaves in this world. The most important event in the Old Testament is God's liberation of the Hebrew slaves from bondage to Pharaoh. Linking the Sabbath command to this liberation event effectively says, "If you don't integrate at least one full day of deep rest into your life, not even God can liberate you!"

God does not want us to view rest as a luxury but rather as a necessary part of a balanced, free lifestyle.

In Jesus' day, when a particular day (Saturday) was commonly recognized among Jews for Sabbath observance, Jesus continually reminded people to see beyond its legal requirement to the heart of what it was all about: "The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27). When the Pharisees challenged Jesus for healing on the Sabbath, Jesus countered, "Is it lawful to do good or to harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?" (Mark 3:4).

Christians need to be dialoguing openly with one another about what Sabbath means in our day and age and what the integration of rest, relaxation, prayer, worship and play in everyday life really looks like on a personal and communal level. Individually, we must evaluate our own priorities and Spirit-led convictions, then live by them.

May the Sabbath experience lived-out in our lives liberate and refresh us both spiritually and physically.

Blessings!

Duff

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Living The Law of Love

There are questions within the Christian community about the relationship of a "New Covenant" believer in Christ to the "Old Covenant" law of Moses. Let's think briefly on God's law in its "old" and "new" contexts. Application of any meaningful truth into a person's lifestyle requires contextualization.



God gave the ten commandment law to Moses and the children of Israel as they wandered in the wilderness. They needed to be liberated between their own ears from a tyrranical slavery under which they had lived for over 430 years. They didn't know how to live well and love well of their own free will. They needed clear guidance and a specific framework for morally constructive living in relation to God, self and others.



The content of the New Testament moral law is identical to the Old Testament, but the context is different. The Old Testament law applied in the context of a theocratic nation. The moral commandments in the New Testament apply to individual believers in Christ.



It is important to know that the eternal ethical principles embodied in the Mosaic Law are the same ones restated in the New Testament. But the context in the New Testament is GRACE instead of judgment, since Christ has taken the judgment on our behalf. If a person commits adultery under grace, they have violated God's law, but they won't have to pay with their life as they would have had to under the Mosaic law 3,000 years ago. Christ paid with his life once for all (Hebrews 10:10). That is why St. John wrote: "The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17).



Christians are not under Moses' particular edition of God's ethical directives. When a Christian lies or steals, they are not breaking Moses' law, nor do they pay the consequences of Moses' law. They are, however, breaking God's eternal law of LOVE.



God has not changed (Hebrews 6:18; 13:8). He is still the God of love in the New Testament as he was in the Old Testament. The moral principles that express his love to us and show us how to share that love with God and others are still the same.



Jesus spoke of at least two laws of love: one for loving God and one for loving people (Matthew 22:37-39). He also said he came to fulfill the law, not to abolish it (Matthew 5:17). There is synergy between the Old law and the New because when we truly love God and our fellow humans, we will find ourselves not breaking the ten commandments (Romans 13:10).



Each of the ten commandments gives us the loving thing to do and the unloving thing to avoid in our relationship with God, self and others. Each law is love put into words!



1. "You shall have no other gods before me" says that loving devotion to God is a pure and wholehearted lifestyle unrivaled by any person, idea or thing.



2. "You shall not make for yourself an idol" says that loving devotion to God focuses on God, not on religious or secular practices, props or substitutes.



3. "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God" shows that loving devotion to God includes respect and reverence for God's unique person and identity.



4. "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy" says that loving devotion to God includes time spent each week (regularly) in worship and rest.



5. "Honor your father and your mother" says love for parents is expressed through recognition, respect and showing them high esteem.



6. "You shall not murder" says that love for others respects their right to have their life preserved.



7. "You shall not commit adultery" says that love for spouse (or future spouse) is demonstrated through sexual purity and faithfulness that empowers intimacy.



8. "You shall not steal" says that love for others is expressed by respecting their property, possessions, reputation and identity.



9. "You shall not give false witness against your neighbor" says that love for others is shown through dealing in relation to them honestly and truthfully.



10. "You shall not covet" says that love for others focuses on what we can give to others through our personal investment and service, rather than considering what we might be able to get that belongs to them.



Love is the heart of each of God's commands.



In both the Old and New renditions of God's moral requirements we see that LOVE is the only life-giving way to respond and be in constructive relationship with God, self and other people.



God wants us to be clear on his call to live lives fully committed to love, so he spelled out what the life of love looks like in very specific terms in his laws. God's law is love put into words.



We can say, "Love is the one moral absolute."



God is revolutionizing our individual lives and this world with his love!



Praise God!



I love you,



Duff