Colossians 2:16-23 - 16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. 18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. 19 They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
20 Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 22 These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.
We focused on these Scriptures in Colossians tonight and talked to the kids about the dangers behind legalism....following rules in hopes of gaining God's favor. Dictionary.com defines legalism as "strict adherence to the law, especially to the letter rather than the spirit.
We watched a few movie clips to give the kids the right idea. The first was from Meet the Parents and is where Greg is confronted by a rule-abiding, stringent airline hostess who refuses to let him board his plane until all other rows have been seated....even though he is the only passenger on the plane! The second clip was from Despicable Me and features Gru running down the list of rules he has for his newly adopted daughters.
We talked about how ridiculous both clips were. We discussed how some of the religious leaders in Paul's day were trying to enforce Old Testament rules on the Gentile believers that were unnecessary to their salvation. Jesus Christ came to this earth to live a perfect life, die on the cross for our sins, and be raised again the third day so that, if we are truly His, we have freedom in Him. We are no longer under the rules of the Old Testament to ensure that we are "right" with God. That's not to say that rules are not necessary and that all rules are to be ignored or broken. Think about the Ten Commandments for instance. But we cannot obsessively abide by rules imposed in the law of the Old Testament and think that, in doing so, our obedience somehow replaces a true and vibrant relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ.
To get the point across, we had a bookbag and some rocks....not just any rocks. These were river rocks collected from a stream in Pennsylvania last summer. They are big, smooth, and HEAVY! We put the bookbag on one of our smaller youth and, with each rock placed inside, named an Old Testament law that carrying that rock meant they had to abide by. Some of our laws included:
- Don't wear clothes made of more than one fabric (Leviticus 19:19).
- Don't cut your hair nor shave (leviticus 19:27).
- Any person who curses his mother or father, must be killed (Leviticus 20:9).
- People who have flat noses, or are blind or lame, cannot go to an altar of God (Leviticus 21:17-18).
- Kill anyone with a different religion (Deuteronomy 17:2-7).
- Death for working on the Sabbath (Exodus 31:14).
- Don't eat lobster or shrimp (Leviticus 11:10).
Then we let our now "burdened" youth carry that bookbag around the building three times. When they returned, we asked them how they felt....tired, hurt shoulders, weighted down. That's exactly how it feels when we trade in the freedom we have in Christ for the bondage of following rules that Christ's sacrifice freed us from ever having to follow again.
The Old Testament rules and regulations had their purpose and time. They were put in place for the Israelites protection, to test their obedience, to maintain some semblance of justice. But they were merely a shadow of what living a life with Christ as our Savior would be like in New Testament times....living under the shelter of His wings, walking in obedience to Him, serving Him through loving our neighbors as ourselves.
Imagine if, after several years in the Promised Land, the Israelites had decided they'd rather return to Egypt and their former lives as slaves. A man on death row gets pardoned and is released after 20 years in prison...only to beg to be put back behind those bars weeks later. Ridiculous? That's what it looks like though when we allow others to tell us that we have to obey Old Testament laws in order to be right with God. We are putting back on the chains Jesus came to free us from.
It's not about the rules....it's about the relationship.
