God's Loving Rule

 During a recent morning walk I saw a sad encounter between a mom and her child on the sidewalk in front of their home. The mom was trying to get the young boy to go to school and he was yelling and screaming at the top of his lungs. Now I don’t know for sure what the context was. And there could be unseen factors. But one thing was for sure, that boy had missed a key goal that should be set for all young lives. The fifth commandment reads, “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” Sons and daughter are to learn to submit to the authority of their parents and this, in turn, helps them learn to submit to the authority of God. Leviticus 19:32 (NIV) captures the connection: “Stand up in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the LORD.”

 

Why should we be motivated to submit to the authority of God? The answer is found in the fifth question and answer in The New City Catechism: “What else did God create? Answer: God created all things by his powerful Word, and all his creation was very good; everything flourished under his loving rule.” This answer is derived from Genesis 1:31: “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. . . .” To say that everything was “very good” in part means that it serves the well-being of the world through its having all it needs to bring about God’s glory and humans’ benefit. 

 

God’s rule in Eden was loving. It is always loving and it is best to live under His rule. Here are just a few statements from the Bible that demonstrate this.

 

1. God gave His people-benefiting revelation of His will and life wisdom for both His glory (Deut. 4:1-8) and the good of people (Deut. 10:13; Psalm 19:7-11). In other words, living under God’s rule is benefiting and good. 

 

2. Because of number 1, it follows that, God’s “commands are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3).

 

3. All the world’s brokenness arises from man’s sin, the curse of sin on the world, and thus, that humans want to live as their own kings and queens and not under God’s rule (Gen. 3:1-19; Rom. 8:18-25). 

 

4. The hope of the world is the coming of God’s kingdom, which has already started (Mark 1:14-15) but it is not fully here yet (Matt. 6:10). Once God’s kingdom is here in full, His loving rule will be restored fully (Rev. 21-22). 

 

5. Jesus Himself taught that those who have come into the kingdom of God and his loving rule through Jesus are the truly happy ones (Matt. 5:3-10). As a result, those who hear and keep the Word of God are blessedly happy (Luke 11:28), for they live under the loving rule of God.

 

6. Finally, teaching children the need to live under God’s rule for flourishing is loving since it shows us we all fail at this and need a Savior who has lived under God’s rule perfectly, as well as fully paid the penalty for their sins (See Paul’s argument in Romans 1-8, and his statement in Gal. 3:24-25). 

 

Scripture teaches us that God’s rule is loving. It is important to teach right and wrong from Scripture, but as number six above reminds us, it is not enough. It is only in and through the gospel we come to live under God’s loving rule. 

 

May we never fall for the lie that true freedom is freedom from authority. No! true freedom is knowing the King as Savior and living under His rule (Gal. 5:1, 13; Heb. 12:23)!

  

Tom