The freedom of don't

[ded2daworld]

Someone mentioned the 10 commandments being summed up in ten words, don't don't don't,etc. I believe the ten commandments are freeing. Here's a question:

Which gives more freedom: DON'T enter a house that has a pinewood door or Enter a house ONLY if it has a pinewood door.
How many things can we do in this world? With the ten commandments, there are only 10 things we are told not to do. We are FREE to do ANYTHING ELSE not covered by the ten.

How much freedom would we have if God said that there were only ten things we COULD do?
I know we are free and no longer under the law but non-believers tend to think of God restricting us when the ten commandments were freeing. Jesus narrowed it down to just 2 for we who believe. Can you imagine" If we just do 2 things, "truly love God and truly love your fellow man" we can literally do anything else. What freedom!

Man is the restrictive one. There are literally thousands of pages of laws that we are supposed to obey and are convicted whether we are aware of the law or not. I once got a $200. ticket driving to a wharehouse in an 18 wheeler on a 1/4 mile stretch of an ordinary road that the waerhouse was on. It was Sunday and I missed seeing a small sign that said, "No 18 wheelers permitted on this road on Sundays" I was over 3,000 miles from home so needless to say, I hadn't been through there before and had little choice but to pay the fine.
One "chapter" #475 of Florida Law (real estate) contains several hundred pages of don't just pertaining to real estate. They all boil down to dealing honestly and fairly with each other - just like all other laws. Yes indeed, man is the restrictive one.
Proof positive is that 10 "restrictions" from God to the Jews weren't good enough so they developed 613 more "rules" or laws to be followed. Congress abd the states pass more laws every day. Even cops - the law enforcers aren't aware of all the laws and only enforce certain ones that are "emphasized." as more important. For example, throwing a cigarette butt out the window of a car or dropping it on the ground is littering but is it ever enforced? Rarely.
Anyway, I guess I'm saying God's laws good and freeing. Man's laws bad and restrictive.

[VineBranch]

Excellent point!!  I remember having a discussion with a friend.  It was on the eve of  Canada  getting it's equivalent to the constitution.  We were debating what should be used as a template.  Both of us came to the conclusion that to make a charter of rights and freedoms based on what was permissable was about as silly as it gets.  How do we know what technology will bring in five, 10, 15 years? How do you tell people what they can do, if you have no idea what their society will look like in the next decade?  We also came to the conclusion that God had it right.  Do nots are far more liberating.

[marie glen]

Exactly! And absolutely! And not only individually, but also when nations or a people disregard those wonderful guidelines God set down and established Israel and all law upon, the people suffer and are far less free..

p.s - somehow i've gotten it in my head that in all actuality there's only one law/rule for us born again children of God - to love God. Because to truly LOVE God is to keep seeking Him and to draw near to Him, which in turn is what fills one with God (with His spirit and Presence) and if, and so be the case, we WiLL indeed love our fellow person, and as we know love works no ill, but seeks to bless.. :smile:

[Colleen]

Well, the reason this post puts up a red flag for me is that I heard this very argument at the beginning of my entry mormonism... How freeing the keeping of the Ten Commandments is. The thing that took me 17 years to learn was that my inability to keep them was what brought me to the end of myself, and my self-righteousness, when I got honest that is, after being broken that is. 😉  In my understanding, the law was put there to show us up.  And boy did it! The Israelites said "all the you have commanded us we will do". And how did that work out?  3000 dead!  But in the NT, by His imputation of righteousness, by Him who sat down once for all, 3000 saved! In us he says "I will". I remember reading that in psychology, it has been note that the subconscious does not take note of don'ts but does the very thing it is told not to do.   When I read this I thought of the scripture " the strength of sin is the law".  When I saw "grace" things fell off of me that I in no way had been able to overcome or even wanted to before.

I must say, however, after those initial months of freedom, I handled this grace carelessly, and like the Corinthians used it instead as a license to sin. The amount of distress that that caused me still lingers today. The doctrine of ET that I encountered on entering the "Christian" (molech) church still plagues me today.  Was I really saved? Was His sacrifice sufficient?  Did I lose my salvation?  Every denomination said something different. Since I didn't know much about denominations, Calvinism, Arminianism, antinomianism, pantheism, ad infinitum  ... I didn't know what to do, to believe. I'm not sure why I went on this rabbit trail except to say thank you to those who come here and share and question and discuss. My questions didn't often fit into the study manual for that day's lesson and I was starving. Preachers either blew me off or told me not to worry my pretty little head. Others who had gone to church for years came to me privately to tell me they had had the same questions but didn't have the guts to ask them. Soon I kept hearing the words " come out of her, my people". Well I didn't know that scripture so I looked it up and as the say the rest is history. Thanks all for hearin part of my testimony here. I've been on tent for a couple of years but not said too much. The last few months that has changed. It's been a risk for me. Thanks for the love, again.

[ded2daworld]

Hi Colleen, I'm sorry if it sounded like I was suggesting we Keep the law. I was suggesting that "outsiders see the law as constraining them as a bunch of "don'ts" whereas it was freedom (B.C.)
Christ basically said if you love God and love man, you have fulfilled the demands of the law and as Pual said, "we are not under Law" but he also said we have a debt obligation to love one another. Thank you for your input. :Peace2:

[Colleen]

Well I still don't love God or my fellow man up to the laws's standards. It puts me in mind of Christ asking Peter if he loved(agape) Him. Peter answered that he loved him(telios). IMO this was a lesson to Peter that he still didn't measure up to the two new commandments but that His grace was sufficient. Does this make sense? 

[ded2daworld]

It does to me. None of us live up to the "great commandment" of "Love one another as I have Loved you" Didn't Peter finally get the "do you love me" question right on the third try? :laughing7: :Peace2:

[Colleen]

Yes, but this is all still so new to me and knowing something intellectually and knowing it in the Spirit is so hard to trust. Especially when there are so many spirits to discern. Ugh!

[VineBranch]

Apropos your discussion of the Ten Commandments and the LDS church Coleen,  I was discussing the nature of the structure of the commands as a template for debate. 

IMO
The Ten Commandments were never given to us.  They were given to the Israelites.  Although we can see the wisdom in them if we wish, they were given to a certain people.  I know many Christians who think if other Christians don't know the ten, they are sinners.  It's not a Christian thing, but I have received such flack for saying that over the years, I tend to say it while running away (fraidy cat that I am).  We even had a fellow in the church I went to for a while try to get us back to the Sabbath through an organization called The First Fruits of Zion.  I left before the Christians voted to keep kosher (I really like my medium rare steaks).

I am often reminded of the genius of the one straight forward sign.  'No Parking' ... you can walk here, you can talk, you can stare at the lines on the pavement, you just can't park here.  We had a problem with a lot of people coming into our public library on roller skates and skateboards, a while back.  We made a sign:  'No rollerblades rollerskates, or skateboards allowed in the library'.  Could you imagine the nightmare if we had to itemize all the things you could do in the library, and exclude rollerblades and skateboards from that list.  We'ld still be working on it.

[ded2daworld]

Yep. 2 things. Do those 2 things and your life will overflow with joy.
1. Love God
2. Love others

You do those 2 things and you can do anything else you want.