Pleasing God Pt 2: Works of the Law

The Pharisees get a lot of bad rap in the church today. We like to poke fun at them for being so thick-skulled and completely missing what Jesus said to them. We sometimes act like children on a playground, juxtaposing them as the bad guys and Jesus as a sort of good-guy bully putting them in their place. We pray "I thank God that I am not proud like the Pharisee." Ironic?

We miss the fact sometimes that we're just like the Pharisees. You see, the Pharisees were trying to gain favor with God. They prided themselves in knowing the law and spent all their time studying the law to make sure they were doing everything just so in order to please God. Since they had it down so well, it caused them to look down upon the others who had not yet arrived according to their standard. How are we any different?

We go to our social club churches and make lists of "dos" and "don'ts" and pay our tithe and don't drink or smoke or chew or hang with those who do. And we think it gives us license to look down on those who don't fit our mold of what the perfect Christian looks like. We're Pharisees. On the outside we may look good, but on the inside we're as rotten as the next guy. We serve God with our lips but our hearts are far from Him. Then we quote that little over-used cliché, "It's not about religion, it's about relationship." But all we have is religion. Anyone who goes on like that is in for quite the surprise when they meet God on judgement day and hear "Depart, worker of lawlessness, I never knew you."

I was a Pharisee. I grew up in a good Christian home. I never did any bad things. I was a good kid! But then Jesus told the Pharisees what was really in the law. And I was guilty. The vilest of sinners on the inside, no matter how prim and perfect things seemed on the outside. I hated someone; I lusted; I twisted truth; I had mental idols; on down the list... Worst of all, I put myself above others simply because their sins showed up on the outside. After all, hypocrisy looks better on me than it does on you.

I think it is very profound that God says in Revelation that He'd rather we be hot or cold, but lukewarmness makes Him sick. I used to puzzle over that. How could God want us to be cold? But then I learned that at least if you're cold you know you're cold. Remember the parable of the sheep and the goats? The goats were lukewarm. They thought they had it down. They thought they and God were tight. But they were really serving themselves. At least if they had been cold they would've recognized when God said they didn't serve Him.

When you boil it all down, true service and true obedience is born out of love. When you spend your time chasing works of the law and good deeds and concern yourself with pleasing God by *doing* something, you are serving and obeying out of fear or out of pride. You are relying on yourself to save you. God says the greatest commandment is to love Him with all your heart, soul, and mind. When you love someone that much you don't have to keep a list of what they like and don't like. You just know, because there is relationship.

Jesus died to give us that relationship. He took away what needed to be done to please God. There is nothing more to do to please God. That doesn't mean we throw all restraint out the window and live like the devil, but I will get to that in a subsequent post. For now, just rest in the thought that it's already been done. He said "It is finished." That is the end. No more working. No more hypocrisy. No more fear.
Think about it.

Daily Devos: Are We Doing it Wrong? (or, how to study the Bible 101 part 1)

It's hard to know exactly where to start, but I'm going to attempt to start with one of the first things I awakened to when I began this journey: the daily devotional time. "Devotions" is one of those overly-clichéd words that has completely lost its meaning due to its over-use. While growing up, the word to me meant the small portion of your day where you pay homage to God so He'll bless your day. It's almost like you get special brownie points for doing devos. If you don't do them, you're not going to hell right away, but you'd certainly better feel guilty or else you might not have a spiritual pulse.

Now, it seems that in the average "Christian" American home, devotions usually includes reading a verse or two (or maybe a short passage) of Scripture, generally guided by a little booklet (I won't mention any names, but you probably know what I mean) that has some little story to go along with the verse. It's a great feel-good start to get you on your way. The problem? Well, if the Bible is your spritual sustinence for strength in the spiritual warfare we face day-to-day, let's just say that this would be akin to eating a cracker for breakfast before going out onto a labor-intensive job. And not eating lunch, either. Maybe even having another cracker before going to bed. Sound reasonable?

On the other extreme, some people's idea of devotions is to take a verse or two and do a super-deep expositional study for anywhere from 15 minutes to 3 hours. Admitedly, this is much more spiritually filling--more akin to eating steak for breakfast, to continue the illustration-- but again, it's only one meal, and not a very well-balanced one at that. Many strange doctrines can come out of this style of study as it generally requires taking one or two verses without context, which can be a detriment, which I will delve into in a later installment.

Now, smack-dab in the middle between the different styles of one-verse-wonders are the super ambitious "read through the Bible in five minutes" types who read large volumes of Scripture in short periods of time. They may win all sorts of speed-reading awards, but how much do you really get? This style is akin to eating a bagful of cotton candy for breakfast before that long day of hard work.

My suggestion? Balance in everything. Just as you (hopefully) eat a blanaced diet, you should balance between the contextual reading of what you read and studying the deeper meanings behind what you read. As I said before, I'll get into the importance of context vs depth in a later installment, but for now I want to get back to the point of devotions.

Let's look at what the word "devotion" really means. Taken from DictionaryDOTcom:

noun

1. profound dedication; consecration.

2. earnest attachment to a cause, person, etc.

3. an assignment or appropriation to any purpose, cause, etc.: the devotion of one's wealth and time to scientific advancement.

4.Often, devotions. Ecclesiastical . religious observance or worship; a form of prayer or worship for special use.

Interestingly enough, the 4th definition is the religious cultural definition. Being a bit of an etymology geek, I always ask the question, How did this word come to mean this? My theory is as follows: devotion time started as being a time Christians devoted (definition 3: assigned to a purpose) to studying God's Word to learn more about Him, thus becoming devoted (definition 1 or 2: dedication or earnest attachment to a person) to Him. Unfortunately, as is often the case, it seems to have become a religious cliché, as we see in definition 4. 

How do we break this cycle? How do we learn to truly be devoted to knowing God? Do we have to drop career and family--everything-- and become monks or nuns and spend life in solitude and silent meditation to show our devotion?

Yes! Join up today and you'll receive a free copy of my latest book "How to Please God in 12 Easy Steps!" Well, there's no simple answer, really. But I think that God gives us the clues in His Word. Think of how much the Bible (especially in Psalms) talks about meditating (or related words) on God's Word [day and night, no less!]. (hint, if you don't think of about a dozen off the top of your head, do a word-search on Biblegateway.com. That might help jog your memory). That doesn't mean you sit there in a trance-like state mumbling Bible phrases in the original Greek. God didn't call us to be zombies. Think about the book of James that talks about being a doer of the Word rather than a hearer only. 

The point is, whether you read one verse or a thousand--slowly and carefully or at high velocity--if you just forget about what you've read, you've missed the point altogether. The key is not quantity or quality of Bible reading, the key is whether it changes you. Does your daily devotions time make a difference in your life? Does it simmer in the back of your head all day and influence your decisions? Do you pull it out when you have a spare moment and chew on it a bit-- have a little "pick-me-up snack" or another "meal" to boost your strength for your daily battle? If you miss your Bible time, do you still meditate on familiar Scripture and commune with God, or do you hide from him in fear and guilt? God doesn't care whether you "do devotions" but whether you are devoted. Think about it.