"Do This, Do That"
Sometimes, Scripture just grabs you. I’m thankful that when God revealed himself through the written Word that he wielded all the gifts of verbal artistry given to the human writers. Certain parts of Scripture require great attention and perseverance in seeking understanding. Others are so clear, so familiar, that they can knock us upside the head straightaway.
I love the section of Isaiah 28 where in speaking to Ephraim God mimics what they’ve been saying about Him. Through the prophet, He reports them as saying,
“’Who is it he (God) is trying to teach? To whom is he explaining his message? To children weaned from their milk, to those just taken from the breast? 10 For it is: Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that; a little here, a little there.’” [Isaiah 28:9-13 NIV]
There is something so common about this report. Particularly, the phrase, “Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule that” strikes me as familiar in two ways. First, it’s the sort of complaint we often hear from children about their parents, which is ironic considering the Ephraimite complaint is that God is treating them like children. Second, it’s the sort of complaint so commonly registered against Christianity. Ask someone why they have no interest in church and it would be no surprise to hear the person say that it is because it’s a bunch of “Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule that.” Just as often the complaint is about Christian hypocrisy, but this a just a cousin of the same complaint. It’s a complaint that makes complete sense if the Church is reduced to “Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule that.”
Now I’m all about calling brothers and sisters to the carpet when they’re saying one thing and doing another, but if the Church is reduced to making rules and keeping them, I’d dare say the very nature of the Church has been fundamentally misunderstood. The Church is not an association of persons who have agreed on a set of moral prescriptions. The Church is a body of persons joined to the person of Jesus Christ. As might be recalled, Jesus is the Son of God. Joined to him, we are made his brothers and sisters, which likewise makes us sons and daughters of God the Father. When Christ ascended he sent us the gift of the indwelling presence of the person of the Holy Spirit. There are a plenitude of reasons why the Spirit is given to us, but fundamentally it is because we are God’s children. As Paul writes, “Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’” [Galatians 4:6 NIV] We are indwelt by the Spirit so that our lives might sing out in lived praise unto the Father, completing the communion between God and His children.
This is important because “Do this, Do that” completely misses the miracle of the Church. In Christ, God’s commands are shown to be what they really are: a loving father’s exhortations to his children. Every command has been given so that we might flourish, so that we might not go down a path that will end up hurting ourselves and others. In Christ, the Father is telling us that he wants all of us to be His children – He wants to adopt us! This revelation of God’s heart standing behind God’s commands underscores what underlies the call to obedience: it is a call, not to cold compulsion, but to a life of love. It is a call to relationship with God.
In John 14:15, Jesus says, "If you love me, keep my commands.” Love precedes obedience and without it obedience is not at all anticipated. God has no interest in loveless obedience. The point is the divine-human relationship. All other shows of obedience absent that interest are simply adulterous, using God’s commands for other loves (e.g. love of self-preservation, self-righteous pride, etc.). Our failure to obey God is a frank admission of our lack of love. If we loved Him as we should, things would be quite different.
St. Augustine captures the true simplicity of this when he writes, “Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved.” If we loved God like we should, our desires would be perfectly aligned with His. There would be no burden to obedience because it would “please” us and be exactly what we wanted to do! Of course, Augustine is no fool. He knows this is exactly where the problem lies; our hearts are a mess.
Yet we should not despair. God has loved us in Christ and the very purpose of our salvation will be realized on the day when our hearts are conclusively set aright on the day of Christ’s return. Our relationship with God will be all that it was created to be! Nothing is arbitrary about God’s commands, there is no mere “Do this, Do that” about them. They outline the contours of the ideal divine-human relationship, filled out by intersecting lines detailing what the inter-relationship between God’s image-bearers should look like. When we grumble about conforming to this divine design, we only confirm how far we live outside of it. Nailed to a cross, we witness just how perfectly Jesus Christ conformed to it. Thanks be to the God that our hearts can transformed by him!
Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.