You Gotta Have Rules

Rules, more at the point of law—fundamental to life itself.  Some are sophisticated, more are simple, but they abound everywhere—why?  Without them we could not exist.  But right away a distinction must be made between “regulations” (“an authoritative rule dealing with details of procedure”), without which life could continue on nicely, and laws, which govern life itself, e.g., gravity.

A homeowners' association may agree to a set of regulations which others, not party to the original drafting of such rules, find onerous.  If so, they don’t move in, going elsewhere.

Still, there are rules (“laws”) governing life from which there is no escape.  Have you ever tried to escape the bounds of gravity?  Even in deep space laws of gravity still prevail, persons just relate differently to them.

Similarly, laws govern electricity and ever so many other areas of life.  Observe these laws and you will get along fine; violate them at your peril.     

There are “social laws” written into the universe that carry as much force as do any physical laws.  The problem is that the consequence of breaking a “social law” may not manifest itself so quickly as transgressing laws governing the use of electricity; but incredibly, their trespass is just as visible and real as the other.  The principle involved is itself a law, "first the natural, then the spiritual" (I Corinthians 15:46).

This principle is illustrated in the act of “taking God out of our schools”, saying “No” to a host of God’s social “laws”, has released unimagined ills of a few years back and sadly will precipitate events beyond our present imagining.

Likewise there are “laws” governing marriage and the family.  God’s standard for marriage:  one man and one woman until death parts, though still the dominant standard, enough inroads are being made through same-sex marriage (?), couples living together without benefit of marriage, and “straight” couples making a mockery of marriage with multiple marriages to constitute a frontal attack on the traditional (nuclear) family.  While at the same time an oblique attack against the family is being mounted by the compound ills of abortion on demand and children born out of wedlock, both problems being exacerbated by government policy.  We have become like those of whom it was said, “They sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind” (Hosea 8:7).

And what does one say of "law" and our government?  First, we are to pray for it (Romans 13), not prey upon it.  Perhaps because there are so many “takers”, the “ship of state” is being battered greatly by the fiercest of storms—her survival is yet to be determined.

Most shocking is that the one institution that should be undergirding schools, marriages and state has itself become derelict:  the church.  Without the church’s being “salt and light”, what can we expect of the rest of society?

Pray for the church.  Pray God have mercy upon the church and turn it from the evil of its ways lest He have to turn to it in wrath.  The basis for our praying:  “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (II Chronicles 7:14).