Theme: The Commandments of life
Text: Deut. 4:1-2, 6-9; James 1:17-27; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
The revelations being made at the National Reconciliation Commission gives us reason to really examine ourselves and see ourselves as we really are. We have always been known as a nation of very peaceful and friendly people and the proverbial Ghanaian hospitality is acknowledged all over the world. Yet we hear of horrendous and disgusting crimes that were committed here in Ghana and by Ghanaians. How could such a thing happen in this modern civilised world? How could Ghanaians behave in the way they did? How could they torture and kill human beings and feel nothing? Does all this not serve to reveal our true nature? We should stop deceiving ourselves and stop denying that what happened never did. Rather we should accept our guilt and come before the Lord and ask for His forgiveness. We need to follow God’s direction to humble ourselves, and pray, and repent from our evil ways and turn again to the Lord and observe all His commandments. These commandments are contained in a manual that God has given to us, the Bible. As ever customer knows, manufacturers normally provide their customers with operating manuals. Whenever we buy something new, whether it is a car, CD player, washing machine, TV or video recorder, a manual is given with it to teach its use and to ensure its maximum performance. The manual tells you how the product works and what needs to be done to keep it working efficiently. I once read a story about a young man with a small Ford car. The car broke down on his way to work one day and refused to start again. Suddenly a well-dressed man pulled up at his side in a big car and offered to help. The young man did not expect such a well-dressed man to know anything about his small Ford but he was desperate enough to let him have a look. The man took a look at the engine and after a few minutes asked the young man to again start the car. When he did so, the car not only started immediately but the engine sounded better than it did before. The surprised young man was full of thanks and asked the well-dressed man for his name and how he knew what was wrong with the car. Well replied the man, “my name is Henry Ford and I invented this car.” He knew all about the car because he made it. And God knows everything about us because He made us. He knows what we need to make a success of life and He has met that need by giving us a manual containing the commandments of life.
The commandments of life apply to everyone. We either obey them or we disobey them. When we do not obey the voice of the Lord and carefully observe all His commandments and His statutes we cannot enjoy His blessings. Instead we come under a curse and experience a lot of difficulties in our lives. If, however, we diligently obey the voice of the Lord our God, to observe carefully all His commandments, we also enjoy His blessings.
The commandments of life are specific instructions, which set out basic areas of behaviour. Instead of obeying these laws we often interpret them to suit our own needs or we simply refuse to obey them. We are actually confronted with this behaviour on a daily basis in life. Sometimes, more often than not, we ourselves are the cause of it. We are constantly misinterpreting or disobeying laws that are designed to preserve life. All around the world in every society, law and order seem to be under attack, and many people think that they would be better off if they had complete freedom. In Ghana today many people pay little attention to the law. People are being murdered, instant justice is being meted out to thieves who are killed instead of handing them over to the authorities, and innocent people are being lynched without being given the chance to defend themselves. In recent years Ghana has been rated among countries with the highest recorded cases of traffic accidents and deaths. The main reason for this is that drivers and other road users have no regard for traffic rules and see traffic lights only as street decorations. Many drivers appear to be colour blind and drive through red traffic lights. They do not even find anything wrong with their behaviour. Unfortunately this behaviour is also evident in every area of our lives including the way we respond to the commandments of life. We do not only disobey them but we also change them to suit our needs. No human being with limited wisdom and knowledge can edit God’s perfect commandments. To presume to make changes to God’s commandments is to assume a position of authority over God who gave the commandments. The religious leaders at the time of Christ did this by elevating their own perceived ideas of the law to the same level as that of God and the practice still continues to this day.
We all have the tendency to interpret the commandments of God in the way that suits us. This is not a new problem we are facing in our day but a problem that Israel faced throughout its history. By the time of Jesus these commandments had been so often misquoted and misapplied that they had lost their real meaning. Jesus used every opportunity to correct the abuses and excesses to which they had been subjected. One such area was the way they attached great importance in the outward observance of certain traditions and ceremonies. The Jews, for example, attached great importance to the ceremonial washing of hands before meals and criticised Jesus and His disciples for not doing the same. Jesus, however, challenged them saying in essence, "You are not what you eat." In other words, eating food without the ritual washing of hands does not make you unclean. The real problem goes far deeper than the external situations and outward circumstances of our lives.
In dealing with people, we often make the mistake of assuming we know what they are really like, by looking only to the external circumstances of their lives. Their behaviour, however, can be very deceptive. It is not so much what people do, but why they do it, that tells us who they are. Jesus was making the point that the outward observance of certain ceremonies is not an accurate indication of a person’s righteousness. You can go to church and be actively involved. You can sing in the choir, be on committees, give your money, give your time, observe the ordinances, and outwardly be as faithful and committed as anyone who is a member; and yet, do it all for the wrong reasons. While those who seek to follow Jesus will find their way to church, it does not necessarily follow that those who come to church are Christians. We may appear to be something other than what we really are. The issue about washing your hands before meals was not about washing dirty hands. Before each meal devout Jews performed a short ceremony, washing their hands and arms in a specific way. It was thought that this made them pure and holy. But is it the hands of a person that needs to be pure and holy? A book is not what you read on its cover but what you read inside its pages. You cannot judge a book by what is on its cover. Many people have stopped reading books and now spend most of their time watching videotapes instead. You cannot tell how good a movie is by looking at the cover of the videotape but by looking at what is on the tape. A book or videotape should be judged by its content, not merely by its cover. This is the point Jesus was making when He said, "The things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man." Jesus was more concerned about the condition of the heart than about the condition of the hand. God is more concerned about who we are on the inside than about the outward ceremonies we observe. Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. All of our rituals, along with all of our religious ideals, our prayers, our nice thoughts and our good deeds, cannot make us clean. God wants our hearts, not our external obedience. Yes, we are to obey externally but unless our minds and emotions are working in accord with our external actions, we are not acting in Christian obedience. Life comes by living the commandments of life.
The commandments of life transform us from within. What we really are is what we are on the inside and not what we appear to be on the outside. What we are determines our attitudes and our thoughts - our character. What is inside a person always comes out. If they are sinful attitudes, they will manifest in sinful actions. If they are godly attitudes they will manifest in godly actions. When we are changed on the inside our character also changes and our actions reflect this change. Without the change on the inside, all external changes would merely be superficial. A transformation of the inner man draws us to the things of God, namely His word, prayer, fellowship and service and makes us sensitive to the real needs of people.
The person we are within influences our behaviour and our actions. A man is not made unclean by what goes into him but from what comes out of him.... For from within, out of a man’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. All of these evils come from inside and make a man unclean. An inner transformation fills us with love and compassion so that we see people as Jesus sees them. The commandments of life demand that we honour our father and mother. Part of that honour obviously means to take care of them. Yet the Pharisees’ allowed those who were selfish or angry with their parents and did not want to honour them a way out. They simply declared their resources to be Corban. That meant that those resources were dedicated to God. To declare something Corban meant that it was set apart for God’s use and so could be used for no other earthly purpose. In order to get out of assisting their parents financially or with other material resources, they would simply declare them Corban. But in fact, what they were doing was using those things for themselves. They had found a law, which served them well. They had found a way to actually get around the commandment of God. It was not only hypocrisy, but also self-deception because they actually thought they were doing the right thing. Interesting, many today still distort the real meaning of Christianity in the name of God. Many Christians pretend to be something they are not and have no intention of being. Many are worshipping God for the wrong reasons. Their worship is not motivated by love but by the desire to attain profit, to appear holy and to increase in status. Are we paying more attention to reputation than to character? Are we following certain religious practices while our hearts remain far from God? Or are we emphasizing our own virtues while we emphasize the sins of others?
The commandments of life deal with the heart. Jesus is after a transformation of the inner man. He cares more about who we are on the inside than who we appear to be on the outside. He cares more about our inner man than our outward appearance. He cares more about our heart condition than the observance of rituals. The Pharisees added hundreds of their own rules and regulations to God’s commandments of life and then tried to force people to follow these rules. They claimed to know God’s will in every detail of life. Today there are still religious leaders who are sidetracked to add rules and regulations to God’s Word, changing the message of God and causing much confusion among believers. Changing the message of God is to change the God of the message and as A. W. Tozer reminds us “ the essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him.” The commandments of life are for our benefit. Obeying them we enjoy all that God has made available to us. Disobeying them we miss out on God’s power to transform our hearts and lives. Let us enjoy life the way God has designed it to be by obeying the commandments of life. Amen!
