FOR HIGHER REASONS

God must prove true, though every man be false; as the Scripture says, "That you may be shown to be upright in what you say, and win your case when you go into court."  Rom. 3:4, Goodspeed.

A skilled attorney is preparing to plead a case on behalf of a defendant.  He builds his case with great care, covering every possible area that the prosecution might try to use against his client.  He anticipates every legal intricacy, every aspect of witness credibility, that could be brought up in court.  He knows his opponent is a clever prosecutor, and he wants no surprises.

At last his client says, "That's enough!  You've built a solid case for me; I'm sure the judge will rule in my favor."  But his attorney knows that the best way to win the case is by careful attention to detail.  Furthermore, he knows that this is a precedent-setting case.  It will have impact on perhaps thousands of others.  And so he continues with great thoroughness.

How narrow we often have been to assume that the issues in the heavenly judgment center only around ourselves.  We have often forgotten that more is at stake in the divine proceedings than our own salvation.  What is necessary to end the great controversy is far greater than what might be necessary for securing just my own salvation (though in the end they cannot be separated).  The universe-wide problem of sin is rooted in Satan's accusations about the character of God; his challenges must be answered in such a way that--billions of years later--brilliant people will never challenge the verdict.

God's people share Paul's conviction that when the verdict comes in from the heavenly courtroom, God will be shown to have always spoken the truth.  With great eagerness His people long for this to happen, for not only are they jealous for His reputation, but they also wish for the tragedy and pain to be over throughout the universe.  This becomes such a driving motivation in their lives that it leads them to reflect His beauties to others, that they might choose Him.

Of this we can be sure: If God will be vindicated in every one of His actions and decisions, then His decision that I am in a saving relationship with Him will never be successfully challenged throughout eternity!

GOING ON FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH

Blessed are those whose  strength is in you.  Ps. 84:5, N.I.V.

Vitamin pills, protein drinks, aerobics--America is on a fad of getting fit.  Posters displaying muscular bodies abound; "no pain, no gain," viewers  are advised.  But bodies grow old regardless of what people do, and disease can rob the most enthusiastic person of his health.

There is one Source of strength that will never fail!  "Blessed  are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.  As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools.  They go from strength to strength till each appears before God in Zion" (Ps. 84:5-7, N.I.V.).

Our only lasting happiness comes when we know the Father.  Our strength is in that knowledge; we know we are only pilgrims here on this weary planet.  And each day that we must pass through the bone-dry desert of misconceptions about God's character that prevail in our world, we may make places where springs of living water offer hope to the tired and dying.  The autumn rains, the pouring out of the Spirit of God at the harvesttime of earth's history, will pool together as those who delight in Him draw others into like fellowship.  So we go from strength to strength until we gain our heart's desire: to be with the Father forevermore.

It is possible, because "we have this treasure" of the knowledge of God "in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.  We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed" (2 Cor. 4:7-9, N.I.V.).  Our strength is our unshakable consciousness of who God is; our impregnable friendship with Him causes us always to hope.  No future with Him could ever be dim!

So we cry with joy unspeakable, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall trouble or hardship or persecution of famine or nakedness or danger or sword?...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us...[Nothing] will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:35-39, N.I.V.).

Inseparable!  Our friendship with God is going to last!  It makes you feel like living forever!  And so we shall.

GREAT IMPROVEMENTS

And this is the will of the One who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and trusts him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up when the last day comes.  John 6:40, Phillips.

My young daughter was trying to hold a conversation with her almost-as-young cousin in the back seat of the car.  Cousin Debbie inquired, "How old are you?"  "I'm fine," Julie replied; "How are you?"  "I'm 9 too," Debbie responded.  As we adults listened from the front seat we realized that each had such a clear mind-set about the purpose of the conversation that they never would know that they hadn't communicated with each other.

This is exactly what was happening with the Pharisees in their conversations with Jesus as reported in John 6.  Their rigid mind-set was keeping them from comprehending that they were asking the wrong question, thus failing to grasp Jesus' utterly unique answer.  They asked, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" (verse 28, R.S.V.).  They were expecting a specific behavior assignment, some new action to perform.  "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent" (verse 29, R.S.V.), Jesus replied, getting right to the heart of the matter.  Without a new relationship with the Master, what good is a new behavior to perform?

But their thinking had been shaped by a performance-oriented religion for so long that they couldn't even comprehend a relationship-oriented religion.  They immediately replied with a new question about Jesus' own performance that they might decide whether to respect His answers.  The larger issue at stake, however, was their understanding of the Father and the kind of religious experience He wants for His children.

The Pharisees were certain that God desires the kind of good behavior that will please Him, that will make Him impressed with them.  Looking at it from a strictly human point of view, they thought that God loves only the lovely, so they set out to be lovely.  But Jesus knew that His Father was not impressed with self-contrived goodness--nor put off by its absence.  Jesus keenly wanted His hearers to grasp the concept that any genuine improvement in the human condition happens only when we are in happy, personal union with our Maker.  Indeed, "everyone who looks upon the Son and puts his faith in him shall possess eternal eternal life" (verse 40, N.E.B.).  That's how great the improvements are!

WANTING IN ORDER TO GIVE

You shall not covet your neighbor's house.  You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.  Ex. 20:17, N.I.V.

Why do people covet?  What is coveting, anyway?  Is it wrong to see your neighbor's house and say to yourself, "Someday, I'm going to build a house just like that!"?  Are we not supposed to be challenged by desire for self-improvement?  Perhaps it would be worth our while to examine some of the basic qualities of self-motivation in light of the high calling we have as sons and daughters of God.

First of all, we would all agree it is obviously wrong to want something that belongs specifically to another person.  The reasons are simple: it means that you desire to gain at their expense, that your interests are purely selfish and, consequently, hurtful.  And that is at the crux of the tenth commandment.  It answers a lot of questions about God, too.  He does not simply "want" from us--service, time, our income--just to satisfy an ego-centered divinity.

There is a place, however, for being stimulated toward the kind of self-improvement that involves the motivation to seek material things.  The things sought are seen not as an end in themselves, but as a means of achieving the greater goal of service.  A man might dream of having a house someday just like his neighbor's, not because it would bring him social prestige but because his neighbor's house fits into the man's mental picture of the kind of home that would maximize his ministry to others: a large living room with a fireplace--a good gathering place for groups of people to feel the warmth of fellowship, as well as the warmth of a blazing fire; enough tucked-away places where furniture could be arranged to encourage small-group intimacy within the framework of the larger whole--so as to provide settings where discussions and individual growth could take place.

Once again God's promise of fulfillment for us given in the Decalogue is that He will so resolve our feelings of inadequacy and lack of self-worth that we will no longer be driven to endless grasping after things that cannot bring us peace.  "You will not covet--because your hearts will be content in all that I am and all that our friendship brings."

We will still want, but we will want in order to give.

THE WITNESS OF TRUE FRIENDSHIP

You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.  Ex. 20:16, N.I.V.


You get a helpless feeling when someone who you thought was your friend deliberately says something about you that is not true.  People believe your friends more than your enemies.  They know your enemies are out to get you.  But your friends...

Neighbors know you too.  They live near you.  They know what you're up to--whether or not you yell at the kids, or return borrowed tools, or throw wild parties.  So when a neighbor spreads falsehood, people tend to accept it as gospel truth.

God understands; He's experiencing it, too!  That type of activity was what Lucifer did in heaven.  He was the highest created being; stood next to God's throne; knew what God was up to.  The worst of it was that Lucifer was also one of God's best friends.  Of all the angels in heaven, Lucifer was capable of the highest communion with the Father.  And because of this, his songs had the most melody; his bearing was the brightest.  To him God was the most vulnerable.  Lucifer took advantage of God's friendship to promote himself among the angelic family.

Through man God would demonstrate that Lucifer was wrong.  He would allow man to enter into close union with Himself--and let man tell the truth about Him.  But man too believed Lucifer (new Satan).  But God really loves the human race and knows that we have been deceived.  So He's going ahead with His plan.  He's allowing us the privilege of knowing who He really is--if we choose to know.  And in understanding we will see how horrible it is to give false testimony against a neighbor.  We'll see what it has done to the Father and to the universe.

Like God, we'll feel no need to build ourselves up at someone else's expense.  No.  We'll do just the opposite.  We'll give of ourselves to build up our friends and our neighbors--all those who need our love.  And that leaves no one out!  When we are falsely accused we will not retaliate, even as God has not retaliated against Satan.  Our energies will be focused upon those who need our caring.

In giving ourselves, we will witness to our likeness to the Giver of life.  In Him there is no fault at all.

IT'S WORTH IT TO CARE!

You shall not murder.  You shall not commit adultery.  You shall not steal.  Ex. 20:13-15, N.I.V.


Life is cheap on Planet Earth.  We see it snuffed out night after night on television--either on the news or on the latest crime drama.  Pictures of dead bodies are commonly displayed in every weekly news magazine.  And because it is so common, we hardly flinch at the gore, the inhumanness, the waste of lives that is epidemic.  And people sometimes wonder, Does God care?

Life is cheap, all right.  Even when it isn't snuffed out.  The value of our individuality is constantly diminished with the bombardment of profane sensuality through advertisements, the "top forty" hit songs and countless other avenues to our senses.  We are reduced to bodies--never mind our conscience or even our consciousness.  And again people wonder, What is it all for?

But life is expensive, too--outrageously so!  Even the rich are hurting.  And the little guy?  Well, he goes to bed at night with knots in his stomach, wondering where the ends even are, let alone if they'll ever meet.  It's no wonder that theft is second nature to multitudes of people.  It's more than taking things; it creeps over into taking positions, and reputations, and beating someone to the checkout stand at the supermarket.  And we all wonder, at times, whether or not we care anymore.

Yes, God cares!  He beholds our plight and reaches right down to our tiredness and lifts up our sense of personal worth.  Life is of utmost value!  It is more than the process of blood surging through arteries and veins.  Who we are in these bodies of ours matters.  Our heartaches are not merely second-class pulp novels like those that overflow bookcases, grocery stores, and airport terminals.  We are real, and reality is where God lives.  And when we understand and embrace Him, we embrace reality.  Then people count!  Their lives, in every dimension, matter.  And we know that we matter too--and we can stop wondering.

That's what it means to be brought out of slavery, the kind of slavery that demotes life until it is worth less than the effort to keep it functioning.  It is freedom to interface with the greatest reality mankind can know: God is our Father, and He chooses us to be His friends!  We can know Him, and in knowing Him we will see ourselves as He sees us.  And we will love one another as He has loved us.

THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY

Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.  Ex. 20:12, N.I.V.

So much of what we think about God stems from what we think about our parents--how they disciplined us, their feelings about authority, and our responses to their methods.  All this adds up to how well (or how poorly) we relate to our heavenly Father.  Conversely, how we relate to God inevitably decides how we relate to family members and, ultimately, society in general.

In giving the Ten Commandments, God hoped to bring healing to a nation that had all but lost the meaning of the family unit.  The authority figures in their lives had been Egyptians.  Little dignity had been allowed the Hebrew people, and children were heavily influenced by the way their parents had been treated.  As their parents had been regarded, they regarded them; and no doubt there were resulting power struggles in the home.  God had to reestablish correct relationships within the family circle.  By evoking reverence for parents, God superseded the example of the Egyptian taskmasters.

Despite the  wordage of the fifth commandment, however, God was not exclusively addressing children.  As parents taught their offspring the principles of the Decalogue, they were alerted to the tremendous responsibility entrusted to them.  The attitudes their children gained under their tutelage would depend largely upon them.  Implied in the spirit of this commandment is the thought that parents should conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the respect of their children.

The central issue in the great controversy between God and Satan is the character of God--most particularly His authority.  Satan has accused God of being arbitrary in His dealings with His created beings.  He has claimed that God wants to control everyone just for sheer pleasure, that His demand for our worship of Him is to satisfy His need to show off His power.  In establishing the family unit on earth, it was God's plan to display a working model of His true authority.

With hearts full of selfless love, parents were to nurture and wisely guide their children.  In turn, children would learn to appreciate their parents' values--because what they had been taught was sensible and reliable.  They would see that their parents had only their best interests in mind, that whatever authority was exercised was to preserve quality of life, never to satisfy parental power needs.

And so it is with God.

FRIENDSHIP DAY IN THE UNIVERSE

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.  On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.  For in six day the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.  Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.  Ex. 20:8-11, N.I.V.


You're sitting in your favorite chair in the front room.  The phone rings.  As the voice on the other end begins you sit bolt upright in your seat.  "Who?" you ask.

"This is the president of the United States!  I would like very much for us to get together!"  Flabbergasted, you reply, "Uh, that would be great!  Uh..."  Your mind races.  A trip to Washington!  It'll be an experience of a lifetime!  Something you'll tell your grandchildren!  But what's that he's saying?  Once a week!  "You see, I'd like for us to become friends!  That's why I think we should spend at least a whole day together each week.  I'll fly out each Friday evening..."

Hard to imagine?  I mean, why in the world would the president want to spend time with just an everyday person?  Let alone a whole day out of each week!  And yet that is exactly what the God of the universe has done!  He has set apart--made holy--the seventh day of each week and invited us to spend the day with Him!  And He gives the reason why He's interested in us: He's our Creator!

God did not create mankind so that He could be some sort of divine zookeeper!  He made us in His image so that He might share His life with us.  He gave us minds that can grow and dream and participate in the excitement of this wonderful universe.  He shared with us a portion of His uniqueness and individuality so that our inventiveness would enhance life and make His own heart glad and refreshed.  His desire is that we should find friendship with Him so delightful that we begin to soar, and that our capacity to communicate with Him might continue to develop until we can enter into such provocative interchange with Him that He Himself is stimulated.  And it all begins with Sabbath communion.

TRADE LAWS AND ETERNAL LIFE

You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.  Ex. 20:7, N.I.V.

The United States has trade laws to protect the consumer from the fraudulent use of brand names on merchandise that is not in truth manufactured by the companies that own the names.  In this way both unsuspecting buyers and manufacturers can seek redress if poor quality merchandise is spuriously marketed as "the real thing."  Peddlers of such bogus products are often fined heavily and ordered to make restitution to the offended parties.

If you've ever been on the receiving end of this kind of dealing, you know how annoying and sometimes damaging the results can be.  The car part that gave out halfway to Iowa; the epoxy glue that let go just as you lifted a mended hot-drink mug to your mouth.  But what if the "product" is God?  What if the "truth" accepted doesn't get you all the way to heaven?  What if your "mended life" gives out on you, scalding you with feelings of hopelessness and despair?

When we "trade" in religion, our fair-minded God has indicated that we need to be scrupulously careful about what we present as "the real thing."  So much is at stake!  Our view of God ultimately decides our eternal destiny!  If God's name is attached to concepts that leave us inadequately prepared to meet the rigors of this life, we will come to believe that He is inadequate!  If His name is used as authority for emotional abuse, we will learn to hate Him!  If in His name we are plundered of our dignity and made to submit to mindless humiliation, we will never rise to the heights of godly attainment afforded us by our excitingly visionary Maker.

We can trust God.  He guarantees that His ways will bring us happiness, and we may trust that the guidelines that bear His name will ultimately do just that.  However, when offered such "truth," we are encouraged by God Himself to look for His "brand name" before accepting it.  "To the law and to the testimony!  If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn" (Isa. 8:20, N.I.V.).

The third commandment underscores that God cares a great deal about the integrity of our thinking.  He desires to lead us away from the slave mentality of Egypt and into reasoning like the sons and daughters of God that we were destined to be.

OUR PROTECTIVE FATHER

You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the waters below.  You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third generation of those who hate me, but showing love to thousands who love me and keep my commandments.  Ex. 20:4-6, N.I.V.


"I'm jealous!"  How many times have we felt such sentiments?  The neighbors get a new car.  Our best friend goes to Hawaii.  A coworker gets a promotion.  Our insides tighten and a hotness goes through our system like a slow-spreading fire.  Indignation sets in: "I deserved that!"

Is jealousy ever good?  Or is it always an expression of self-absorption and competitiveness?  What about the possessiveness between a husband and wife?  Is it "right" for a wife to be jealous when her husband flirts with another woman?  Perhaps we need to define what we are talking about when we use the word jealousy.  Roget's Thesaurus couples the term with such expressions as green-eyed monster, distrust, resentment, and sour grapes.  Certainly, none of the above words carry any positive aspects with them, especially when talking about relationships.  Does that mean, however, that a spouse should feel nothing when his companion encourages the attentions of another man?

Love is not indulgent, neither is it blind.  Genuine love seeks to protect and nurture--to guard the loved one from experiences that are destructive and/or diminishing.  Could it be that a husband's jealousy might be an expression of his protectiveness?  Rather than evidence that he is trying to "keep her to himself," his jealousy could portray his deep concern that his wife not be exposed to hurtful influences--influences that, in the end, might rob him altogether of the desired privilege of nurturing and providing for her.

Certainly that is what is meant when God calls Himself "a jealous God" in the second commandment.   The punishment spoken of--"to the third and fourth generation"--is a statement of the long-ranging effects incurred by families who do not choose to live under God's nurturing watchcare.  In contrast, those who accept and love God emulate Him in their relationships with family members and friends.  In this way His love is shown a thousandfold.

And their lives reflect the protective love of our caring Father.