Laws of Love

God has given us His Word, filled with glimpses of His love and His character.  The Bible is a treasure chest filled with endless gems more valuable than anything this world can offer.


Sometimes I hear (or read) people's ideas that the Bible is just a bunch of antiquated lists of things to do or not do.  Most of those people express - either explicitly or implicitly - that God is just some kind of cosmic killjoy with rules that don't apply to today's society.


This idea is prevalent outside the church, but I have found shadows of this kind of thinking even inside the church.  Sometimes it seems the boundaries God has set for our lives are - well - inconvenient.  Sometimes they seem too hard to follow.  We may (consciously or subconsciously) even try to pick and choose the things we want to follow and then ignore the rest.  Rules feel restrictive, and by nature we tend to want to rebel against them.


Perhaps we need to think a little differently about this altogether.  Please allow me illustrate.


I love my children more than I can possibly express.  My exuberant four-year-old is obsessed with jumping on furniture, or jumping from the sofa to the floor, or other kinds of daredevil activities.  She is unaware of the dangers; she just wants to play.  She thinks I am unfair when I tell her not to jump on the furniture or jump down from a high place.  Even when she has gotten hurt while doing these things, she still desires them, and pursues them again and again.  Because I love her, I keep enforcing the rules - to protect her and to help her grow up to be healthy and strong.  We have even purchased her a little exercise trampoline that she can jump on at any time - in hopes she will enjoy jumping on that instead of on the furniture.


We keep these boundaries out of our love for her.  The same is true of the boundaries we keep on all three of our children: limits for internet usage, time limits when playing video games, limits on eating sweets, etc.  These boundaries are expressions of our love for them and our desire to help them be healthy emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually.


The same is true of the boundaries the Lord sets on our lives.  These are expressions of His love for us.  If I stay within the boundaries, I will find much joy, safety, and blessing.  These are laws of love from my Heavenly Father, and I will do well to follow them with obedience and gratitude.  


Within those boundaries there is still much freedom.  I take much joy in my time with my wife and children.  I enjoy many material blessings (probably too many) He has graciously provided.  I have wonderful friendships with many people.  I am so blessed!  When I spend time enjoying these blessings, I temporarily forget about some of the enticing things that are outside the boundaries.  


Adam and Eve were given access to every tree in the Garden of Eden except one.  Yet it was the one that drew their attention, and their first step outside of God's boundaries began thousands of years of sin and pain in our world.  Likewise, when we step outside God's boundaries, venturing into sin, there will be inevitable pain.  Let's stay within God's laws of love and find great joy in all He has given us.