New Law

I have had something troubling me lately, as I mentioned in my last entry, I have been trying to shed some of my pre-conceived notions about my journey with Christ. I have been going back through as I read and subjectively applying the filter I have had applied for years to see what of the things I had been taught were truth and what was man-made. I find that there are many things that man has added to this beautiful life that Christ led before us. I don’t have a very good explanation as to why this has happened, but it looks very similar to the Law of the Old Testament.

The problem with the Law is that it was impersonal, cold, and had been twisted to become a barrier between those who were meant to direct and point people to God and those who knew very little of Him. It was for this reason that Christ was sent to make the connection, to transcend the Law, and so He did. Those who had been guardians of this Law (mind you, there were supposed to be more like tour guides than security guards) were appalled at what Jesus was teaching. This made the Law, which they had placed higher than God Himself, worthless.

Of course you can imagine the tension. The very thing that these men had devoted their lives to, the historical implications, the legacy was over and this new Way was being put into place. The things they focused so much on turned out to not be as important as they thought. The Law was over, their pious ego’s were crushed…all because they chose to follow the Law over what God really wanted.

Tension.

I fear there is a new wave of the Law and Pharisee-ism. I see it running rampant throughout the American church. This new Law, much like the old, has Christianity focusing on the things that don’t matter as much in the Kingdom. We often worry about dress, buildings, styles of worship services, politics, music, and alcohol. There isn’t necessarily a reason that we can’t be concerned about all of these things, but are they becoming idols? Are these things becoming more important to us than God.

“Certainly not!” we may answer with our words, but do our actions back that up?

And are we so worried about winning that we don’t care about people?

We are commanded to love God…and people…

The old Law failed at this, and it appears the new is as well.

Pharisee-ism was running rampant in the old Law, and as we see, often times Christ tried to cut through the Pharisee’s arrogance so that they would see the truth. In fact, I dare say, the Pharisee’s were the main focus of Christ’s pointed comments. So what does that say about us? What would He say to the church now?

Everyone has a stand and an opinion on the aforementioned issues, but are we so focused on being right that we don’t care who we are running over? If so, that looks an awful lot like those whom Jesus spoke against.