Recently my town decided to graffiti its own Main Street sidewalks with the message: no bicycles or skateboards. I’m sure the intention is safety. People walk in and out of the shops and storefronts, and you don’t want anyone young or old to be taken out by a person on a bicycle. But it made me think of two things: (1) perhaps there is a better way to state the message, like a nice looking sign that reads for the safety of others, please walk your bicycles or skateboards on these sidewalks; and (2) how swift we are to shout No! even in church, and maybe we shouldn’t be.
Of course, we get no ingrained into our minds at an early age. Children learn to talk by mimicking those who talk to them. Often no is one of the first words a child learns to say, in part because we yell it at them so often. And again, our intentions are noble—we want our children to be safe and not running into the road or pulling books from the shelf down upon their heads or sticking fingers or other objects into the tempting little holes that deliver electricity to us.
The Bible even has plenty of no. If you read the Ten Commands in Exodus 20, eight of them contain the phrase “do not.” Yet something changed whenever a certain expert in the law asked Jesus about the greatest commandment. Jesus didn’t quote a do not, rather he said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40, ESV).
Jesus turned the do not into a do—negatives into positives. This isn’t to say that when you read through the New Testament you won’t find not and no scattered throughout various commands. You do, but you tend to find them couched heavily within a whole bunch of do (take Romans 12 or Ephesians 4, for example).
The ethic for the Christian is that we are free from sin and the law and free to live for God. We still have to have the occasional not thrown in because our old nature of sin still clings to us kicking and screaming and trying to drag us down with its last gasps. But with hearts free to love God, we are free to pursue and free to follow and free to do.
Sometimes people talk about the church and Christians being known more for what we’re against than what we’re for. Perhaps this is because we get more caught up in running from the old than running towards the new. It’s time that we change that.
Take Galatians 5:22-23 for example: “But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law” (NLT).
May we be known for love—for self-sacrifice, serving others, and seeking their best. May we be known for joy—for true happiness that rests in God, his goodness, and his grace. May we be known for peace—for seeking to reconcile people to God and to each other, being voices of grace and unity when we face bitterness and division. May we be known for patience—for setting our own wills and timelines aside that we might encourage others along in the journey with Jesus.
May we be known for kindness—for reaching out to others to extend to them grace in friendships. May we be known for goodness—for reflecting God’s character in everything we do. May we be known for faithfulness—for staying true to God and being there for others in a world where it’s so easy to walk away and not look back. May we be known for gentleness—for reaching out to the hurting and troubled and offering a hand to those in need. May we be known for self-control—for keeping ourselves in check by delighting in the ways of God above the passions of the flesh.
May we be known most for our yes to God and not live lives of constant no.
This post first appeared at fbcadrian.com
Great article, Mike. Excellent reminders I think we all can benefit from. Thanks. Kind of a funny story relating to your opening illustration, If I may… We had a string of multiple Sunday’s in a row where cell phones went off in one form or another during worship – Several people suggested an announcement be placed on the PowerPoint slides to “turn phones off” or “even “leave your phones at home” – during an office discussion one morning one of our secretaries suggested we go with a more positive spin and have the announcement read: “If you typically have a… Read more »
One of my friends at his new pastorate had a person go around and put up signs that read “no public bathrooms” and “no food or drink in the sanctuary”… he tore them all down, took them into a deacons’ meeting, put them on the table, and said, “We’re not going to be that church.”
Two years later, he still has his job. 🙂
NO public restrooms> Really? LOL. What did they have a mad rush of random people coming in to use restroom at random times???
“Please use the bathroom outside, we do not allow outsiders access to our facilities.”
LOL…well actually the fact that signs like this are prevalent in churches makes it sadder than funny, huh?
Which I think kinda the point of your article…that we turn people away with our rules and laws and end up failing to implore them to be reconciled to God.
Yeah…
For my friend, it was 4th of July weekend and they’re across from the park where most of the celebration in their town takes place.
We had the first session of “Growing Kids God’s Way” last night as part of our Wednesday service. One of the emphasized points was that you should give a reason for the “rule” along with the rule. If it is good for kids, it is generally good for all of us.
Love God and do as you please. Augustine