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Here and nowMonday, February 11, 2008
Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-18 "You shall not steal. You shall not lie or speak falsely to one another. You shall not swear falsely by my name ... "You shall not curse the deaf, or put a stumbling block in front of the blind ... "You shall not go about spreading slander among your kin; nor shall you stand by idly when your neighbor's life is at stake ... you shall not bear hatred for your brother in your heart. Though you may have to reprove him, do not incur sin because of him. Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your fellow countrymen. "You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
"I am the Lord."
Adam ate, and Adam died. But not before he and Eve bore children who carried on in the brave new world full of knowledge God had not intended his children to have. Good and evil reared up and fought against each other. Self-righteousness replaced the guileless freedom in which God created us to live. God's adjustment to the fallen nature of man shows me how to live with myself. Like God responds to me, I can accept the reality of my sin and still expect purity and love to illuminate my next steps. I don't have to hide from my failure, my fallen-ness, my selfishness. When I don't love my neighbor as myself I don't have to hide from God. He will change me, make me more like him, show me how to be holy. Adam and Eve broke away from God, but when God called to them in the evening, Adam answered. He was ashamed, he was afraid, he hid. But he did not stay hidden, and I don't have to either. Reformed slave trader John Newton said, "I'm a great sinner and Christ is a great savior." Amen to that. I once was lost, and now I'm found. Was blind and now I see. Amazing grace, that you, Lord, can love me as you love yourself. |
So many rules. God gave Adam only one: "You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die" (Genesis 2:17).