My Roof, My Rules

 

 

Introduction

When we were children, we grew up in a house full of rules. As we matured, and became more independent, we wanted those rules to be flexible. Parents would make the statement, “While you’re living under my roof, you’ll abide by my rules.” Most times it’s not until we become parents ourselves that we understand why those rules were there and why, sometimes, our parents seemed so strict.

The same line of reasoning also applies to the church; whenever God speaks in His scriptures, he’s essentially saying to us, “While you’re living under my roof, you’ll abide by My rules.” Grant it, The Father has never made this statement but you can see the comparison of a parents’ household to that of God’s household.

The difference in our Parents’ household and God’s household is that as children we eventually grow up and leave our parents’ home and establish our own; with our own rules. There should never be a time when we outgrow God’s home and want to leave it to establish our own.

Keeping all this in mind, however, the evidence is clearly seen, in the churches today, that the majority have outgrown God’s house and have created their own. Yet, they expect God to accept their rules them as His own.

 

God’s First Rule

Essentially, God’s first rule to Adam and Eve was, “Don’t Touch!” (Gen. 3:2-3). Of course, their ‘neighbor’, the serpent, told them it was all right to touch it (vs. 4-5) and so they did (vs. 6-7). When the parent (God) came home, the bad children hid because they knew they disobeyed what they were commanded not to do (vs. 8-10). And like most children, they didn’t want to take responsibility and played the ‘blame game’ (vs. 11-13). Then God did what every parent should do and that is to punish the guilty children; even the ‘neighbor’ (vs. 14-19).

Hopefully you understand why rules are in the household and why it’s not acceptable to listen to a visiting ‘adult’ as they might have a different set of rules.

Disobedient Children

Proverbs 22:6 says, Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it. Bear in mind, this is not a commandment and doesn’t always work successfully. But when you teach children at a young enough age, the lesson should be learned.

When a child misbehaves, they are to be punished by the parents. It is by this action that a child will learn not to do that again; hopefully. Proverbs has these things to say about discipline:

Prov. 22:15, Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of correction will drive it far from him.

 Prov. 23:13, Do not withhold correction from a child, For if you beat him with a rod, he will not die.

 Prov. 23:24, The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, And he who begets a wise child will delight in him.

God’s Roof Today

With all of this said, there are still misbehaving children under God’s roof even today. Those in the denominations, who claim to be God’s children, do things contrary to God’s law and, therefore, not being an obedient child. At home, they expect their children to abide by the “My roof, My rules” standard but, they ignore those same kinds of rules under God’s roof. As I mentioned earlier, these children outgrow God’s House and created their own with a new set of rules claiming it to be God’s House and Rules.

In John 14:15 Jesus said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments.” How often do you hear someone state how much they love Jesus but won’t abide by His commandments? If you call them on it, they might misuse 1 Cor. 13:1, Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. They say you aren’t handling scripture correctly even though you are simply reading a passage of scripture.

How often do people state, “Religion is better felt than told”? Imagine if children applied this same principle to the home and chose to misbehave because it felt right. What if they use that as a basis for school or, when an adult, on the job? They would either be suspended or fired. This is the major error; people see schooling and employment more important which is why they will abide by those rules but not in the house of God. People don’t see this as a double standard because they believe that God will accept their worship regardless of how they practice it.

 

Our Elder Brother’s Example

Jesus can be considered our Elder brother because, as Christians, we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. And He has set the example for us to follow. The apostle Peter writes, For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps (1 Peter 2:21). As we stated earlier, Jesus said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

We should keep his commandments because he kept his Father’s. Remember his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane? And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done" (Luke 22:41-42). Jesus went to the cross because it’s what God wanted and it was also the right thing to do to save us all from our sins.

Finally, in the Hebrew letter the writer states, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, (Hebrews 5:8-9)

Conclusion

God’s house has the “My roof, My rules” standard; it’s called the Bible. Most would rather listen to a man tell you what God wants you to do, rather than read it for themselves. The apostle Peter said in Acts 5:29, …"We ought to obey God rather than men.” Listen to, and obey, God’s rules!