The Law Used Lawfully

Ezekiel 5:5-6

“Thus says the Lord GOD: This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.  And she has rebelled against my rules by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries all around her; for they have rejected my rules and have not walked in my statutes. 

The church today is as God’s people of old, a city, or a grouped people after God’s own choosing, commissioned as ambassadors of His grace and mercy.  Matthew 5:14 reads, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”  

In relation to the church’s commission in Matthew and Ezekiel, I like how one author challenged me to think differently about church membership. We are members certainly.  But his challenge was to think of membership as partnership.  Partnering together for the gospel of Christ.  We are to be, like no other institution on earth, the uniquely designed people who labor together to bring life to a death-filled world.

But contrary to witnessing the beauty of the church as a partnering institution which bears life-giving and light-bearing testimony to the surrounding culture, often we see the opposite; a back-biting, self-absorbed, rule-breathing, treacherous and exclusive society.  A church which has rebelled against my rules by doing wickedness more than the nations.  

Rules, even God’s laws, can be uglier than the compassion of a godless society.  Who hasn’t witnessed great compassion and philanthropy from the hands of unbelievers, often much more gracious than many a professing Christian?  You see, doing the rules does not a grace-channel make.  In fact, that’s what got the Jewish authorities in Jesus’ day their self righteous attitude and actions.  God’s rules can be done with wicked intent.  If our purpose in obeying God is to lord our obedience to Him over others, then we have broken the very law we say we keep.  When God’s laws create an “us and them” attitude (us being those in the church, them being those outside the church.  Or, in some cases, us in this particular church, and them in their particular church, practice, etc.), then we have entered the downward spiral of losing our first love:  “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent” (Revelation 2:4-5).

Remember.  Remember from from where you have fallen.  It was to the church in Ephesus that Jesus was directing his attention in this Revelation passage.  It was Ephesus that contained a mixed bag of Jews and Gentiles (different practice, baggage, etc).  The letter written by Paul to Ephesus some forty or fifty years earlier stressed the unifying power of Christ.  It was a breaking down the “us and them” paradigm.  Apparently, by the time of the Revelation of John, their unity was leaking.  The church at Ephesus was taking on the same characteristics as Israel in the days of Ezekiel.

When the theology or ethic we hold begins to create a people who see the law as the means to Christian virtue, then backbiting, judgmental attitudes, and exclusion will occur.  Gone will be the influence of light into a dark world, because gone will be the influence of grace and mercy within the people of God.

Repent.  Repent from using the law of God unlawfully; i.e. not as it was intended to be used.  Recognize your sinful attitudes and actions.  See how Christ has had compassion on you, a law-breaker, by removing the condemning power of the law over you . . . that same condemning power you have desired to hold over others!  See how Christ has given you the law as a great protection and directive for bringing Him glory as you wield it well and rightly.  See the law of God as good when we use it to bring life and light into other people’s lives with an attitude of mercy.  Pray for this attitude.  Choose today to love those around you the way Christ has loved you and without expecting anything in return.  As we as individuals grasp the mercy and grace of Christ, then we as a church begin to see the influence of Christ through us as a church within our community.  For a city set on a hill cannot be hidden.