All throughout the Old Testament we have those who have been given so much instruction and regulation without motivation. I was reading this week in the Old Testament and was amazed to hear that none of the kings until King Josiah ever celebrated the Passover. They had the regulation but they didn't have motivation. All throughout the Old Testament we see people who have the law but don't care about it, let alone teach it to their children.
Paul warns us to avoid those who set up all sorts of rules of the world. Paul says that these rules and regulations have the appearance of wisdom but they don't actually help in restraining sensual indulgence, i.e. sinful behavior. The rules can be there but they don't actually stop someone from desiring and then going to do the things that you know are sinful.
I know many people who grew up in very strict religious circles and I know so many who rebelled against the rules that were given to them by their parents. Paul does not say that doing these things is right but rather the setting of rules for others does not bring sanctification and holiness. Setting up rules merely legalizes the temptation.
In other passages of scripture Paul talks about how everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial and as we come to know the Lord more as Christians we are to begin to turn away from the things that are not beneficial.
Paul would say the strict legalism found in many families and churches have no value in restraining sin. These groups are trying to regulate people with words and rules rather than allowing the Lord to convict and change their hearts and modeling through their words and deeds the right way to live.
Paul says that rules and regulations don’t help but yet we are to remove things from our lives, as he writes in Col 3:5-9, but not through the creation of laws.
These are things that we as the church should not do not because of some man made rule but because as believers it should be our desire to become more like Christ and to live in accordance to his word and thus we should not do things that are strictly against it. In your own life, rather than in the lives of others, as the Lord convicts you, kill that part of your old self. Cast it off, remove it, and never again pick up any sinful practices of your old self. You are a new creation when your faith in Jesus Christ, don’t go back to your old ways, cast them off and turn towards the good
Have a blessed week and may you become more like Him as you seek to live in genuine community with one another.
