Think back to the story of Peter in Joppa, sitting on a rooftop one day, waiting for lunch. As he waited he experienced a vision in which he was offered all sorts of animals to “kill and eat.” As a devout Jew he declined; to have killed and eaten these animals would have violated the law. But God spoke to him saying, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane” (Acts 10:9-16).
Now listen to a portion of our reading from Colossians for this morning. “Why do you submit to regulations,” it asks, “‘Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch’? All these regulations refer to things that perish with use; they are simply human commands and teachings. These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-imposed piety, humility, and severe treatment of the body, but they are of no value in checking self-indulgence” (Colossians 2:20-23). It would appear that Peter and the author of Colossians have been led to a similar conclusion, that it is quite possible to get lost in a profusion of legalities which serves, not to enable our faith, but to obscure it. Devotion to Jesus Christ is not about checking requirements off a list, it is about accepting Jesus as Lord and allowing him to work through us.
Ever notice how young children will make up games as they go along? If we are not careful we may do the same thing, making up “requirements of faith” to meet our opinions and not as a response to God’s will. God calls us to love God with heart, mind, soul, and strength and our neighbors as ourselves (Luke 10:25-28) which is all very straight forward if not particularly easy. So maybe we would prefer a lot of rules that we can accomplish on our way to salvation, but that is certainly not what we find in Jesus Christ.
Prayer: Lord, help us to love you with everything we are and to regard those around us with love as well so that we do not get lost in a maze of pointless rules but instead live as your people. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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