Colossians 2:20 You died with Christ...why do you live as if you had to obey such rules?



Colossians 2:23 Obeying these rules may seem to be the smart thing to do. They appear to make you love God more and be very humble and to have control over your body. But they don't really have any power over our desires.



Rules.

I miss them.

I grew up in a church/school environment that had a lot of rules.

Don't do this if you are a Christian.

Don't say that if you are a believer.

Don't go here or you may ruin your testimony.

Wear this so you look like a Christian.

In an odd way, the rules were "easier." The checklist made it spiritually and emotionally easy--in some ways--to live a "godly" life. It was measurable and specific.

Later in life, we began to discover grace. The type of thing Paul references in the verses above. There were fewer rules, and more of a relationship. But I confess, sometimes I miss the rules. Because when you are in a relationship with God, sometimes it's hard to know whether He is leading you to do something (or not do it) or if His Spirit is guiding you, or if it's in your own head. When there were external rules, I didn't have to think about it.

But is it truly a loving relationship when all those expectations are placed on you, where you feel like you have to perform to keep God happy? Paul notes in this chapter that rules don't really help us control the actual desires in our hearts. That is where the issues begin.

You can wear certain clothes, and still think immodestly.

You can avoid certain activities, and still fill your brain with junk.

You can put on the kind and happy face and still stab something in the back within your heart.

Do you really want to live like that? Fake? Controlled by external rules and a false sense of being "okay" before God?

Or would you like to walk in His love, listening to His Spirit, sometimes getting it wrong...but knowing His grace is there every step of the way, just like what you show your kid or grandkid when they are learning to walk and they fall down?

Maybe I don't miss the rules so much after all.

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