Smart People Obey

Manuscript for presentation at the second session of Spirituality for Thinkers and Seekers

Friday evening, October 14, 2011

In 1989 there was a 7.0 earthquake in northern California. The Loma Prieta earthquake killed 63 people. I read about that earthquake. I saw the pictures.

In 1994, there was a 6.7 earthquake in Northridge, CA. I didn't have to read about that one. We lived in Thousand Oaks, about fifteen miles from the epicenter. It was terrifying. The house felt like it was being dragged down a bumpy road. Every lamp fell over. All the dishes fell out of the china closet. Books fell out of the bookshelves. 60 people died.

In 2010, there was a 7.0 earthquake in Haiti. The quake devastated the capital, Port au Prince. There are various numbers given for the death toll. The official Haitian number is 300,000. A revised U. S. estimate puts the death toll at between 46,000 and 85,000.

Those are huge differences. But whether the death toll was 300,000 or 46,000, a glaring, screaming question is: why does a powerful earthquake in densely populated areas of California result in about 60 deaths and a similar earthquake in Haiti kills tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people?

Both places are densely populated. Both overlie faults that are known to produce earthquakes. The earthquakes that happened in both places were powerful. But in one place tens of people died. In the other place tens of thousands die. What made the difference? Law.

Specifically building codes.

In California, most buildings are built according to strict building codes that require construction to take into account the risk of earthquakes. In Haiti, there is hardly any building code enforcement at all. I read in one place, that concrete blocks in Haiti often weigh half as much as blocks in the US because they have so little cement in them. Rebar is often skimped on or left out entirely.

The violated building codes do not make the buildings fall down. When the earthquake neither God nor the local building inspector goes and knocks down building that were not built according to code. The collapse of buildings is the natural consequence of ignoring the code – that is, the law. Buildings surviving the terrible shaking of a strong earthquake is also a natural consequence. The building inspector doesn't run around holding up the buildings that were built according to code.

While the precise details of the building code are somewhat arbitrary, the underlying rationale of the code is a concern for safety. And when an earthquake happens, we see the result.

This is the Bible's view of God's law. Law is a description of how life works. When we obey God's law, life goes better. When we disobey God's law, life goes poorly.

See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people." Deuteronomy 4:5-6

Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the LORD your God gives you for all time. Deuteronomy 4:40

Moses and other Jewish prophets emphasized the positive benefits of doing what God commanded and the risks of disobeying.

So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today--to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul-- then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil. I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied. Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. Then the LORD's anger will burn against you, and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you. Deuteronomy 11:13-17.

While there are exceptions, it is generally true that doing the right thing pays off. Usually, if you work hard and do right, life goes better than if you're lazy and crook. Sometimes it doesn't work out. Bad things do happen to good people. But that is the exception rather than the rule. When we follow God's laws for our lives, usually, even here in this world, life goes better. God's law is intended as a blessing. It is designed to protect life.

Psalm 119 celebrates God's law—the benefits that come from following it, the wisdom it contains.

O how I love thy law!

It is my study all day long.

Thy commandments are mine forever;

through them I am wiser than my enemies.

I have more insight than all my teachers,

for thy instruction is my study;

I have more wisdom than the old,

because I have kept thy precepts.

Peace is the reward of those who love thy law;

no pitfalls beset their path.

Psalm 119:97-100, 165 NEB

When we line up with God's law we are wise. When we do what the law requires, we experience peace. Life works better.

Jesus was also very emphatic about the benefits of obeying the law – or doing the right thing.

Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on solid rock. When the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and battered the house, it did not fall because it was founded on the rock. Matthew 7:24-25

According to Jesus, obeying the law is smart. Disobeying is stupid. God promulgated the law because he was interested in the quality of your life. He wanted you to enjoy life. He wanted your kids and your wife, your friends and business colleagues to enjoy life. So he gave the law.

One of the most famous expressions of God's law is the Ten Commandments.

Exodus 20:1-20.

Ten specific rules for life:

Don't have any other God before me.

Don't make images and worship them.

Don't use God's name in vain.

Keep the Sabbath holy.

Honor your parents.

Don't kill.

Don't commit adultery.

Don't steal.

Don't bear false testimony.

Don't covet.

The Ten Commandments are the only part of the Bible that God claims to have written himself. In fact, he wrote them twice. He wrote them on stone tablets and gave the tablets to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Moses took the tablets and headed down the mountain. When he got back to the people, he discovered they were already worship an idol, a gold image of a calf. Moses was so angry with the people he threw the tablets on the ground, shattering them into pieces.

A while later, God told him to make another set of tablets and bring them back up the mountain. Moses did so and God wrote the Ten Commandments again. So they are pretty important. What is the point of these commandments? Quality of life. It's really easy to see that with some of them. Don't kill, lie and steal. These are kind of no-brainers. Who wants to live in a society where these things are common?

Several places in the Bible law is summed up in even simpler terms.

Moses wrote: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. When someone asked Jesus, “What's the greatest commandment?” Jesus answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your hearth, soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. This sums up all the law and the prophets.” (The law and the prophets is a phrase used in those days to refer to the Scriptures. It meant all of God's instruction, including the Ten Commandments and all the laws of Moses and all the wisdom in the prophets and all the inspiration in the Psalms.)

The apostle Paul wrote,

“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Romans 13:8-10

God gave the commandments because he wanted us to live well. He loved us. And he wanted us to love well, to be skillful in love. The commandments describe how love works.

Let's look at a couple of the Ten Commandments.

The seventh commandment is, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” It is a negative command, a prohibition. Most Bible students understand this command broadly as a call for sexual purity, as a prohibition on sexual intercourse outside of marriage. Does following this prohibition make sex more fun or less fun? Does it make relationships happier or more miserable? How does it work out in the actual experience of love. Does refraining from adultery hinder our free expression of love or does it enhance love?

The experiment has been done. People have tried it both ways. What is the outcome of the experiment?

I just read an article this week in the Atlantic. (This is not a religious magazine.) The cover article was titled, “Why Marry?”

The author, Kate Bolick, is a 39 year old single woman who has had a long string of boyfriends beginning in high school. In the world she grew up in, it was assumed that boyfriends and girlfriends would have sex. Love was all that was required. You didn't need to make promises that tied up your whole life. Love was all you needed. If you were in love, sexual intimacy was simply the natural outgrowth of that love.

Fast forward twenty years to the world of 2011. Kate, the mature career woman, is having dinner with a group of college women. In their world, sex was not just for boyfriends and girlfriends who were head over heels in love. Sex was the primary way boys and girls interacted. These young women assumed everyone in their colleges was having casual sex. (Which it turns out is not true of the college population in general. Rather it is true of a particular subset of the college crowd.)

Kate tells of being a bit taken aback at the amount of sexual experience these young women, barely twenty, had already had. She saw nothing immoral about it. To her nothing was immoral that was voluntary. As long as no one was getting raped, morality had nothing to do with it.

But even as a decidedly single woman, a woman who valued freedom over relationship, who valued opportunity over commitment, one thing leaped out at her as she listened to these young women: sex held no magic. Sex was the price of having any kind of relationship, even the most casual, with a boy. But sex was thoroughly disconnected from love. It held no sparkle, no allure. These girls figured they knew pretty much all there was to know about sex. And in their experience, sex was neither rapturous nor satisfying. They kind of dreaded the obligation to be available yet again.

Repeated studies show that couples who live together before marriage are far more likely to divorce than couples that don't live together before marriage. It seems counter-intuitive. Surely, living together before marriage would help couples figure out whether or not they were really compatible. You would think that living together would help weed out the unlikely prospects.

Instead multiple studies have shown that sharing an apartment and bed before marriage lessens a couple's chances of building a life-long marriage.

Finally, when we come to question of sexual adventures outside of marriage, most of us know that cheating in marriage is not rare. However, what nearly everyone also knows is that no matter how common it is, sex outside of marriage is cheating. It is negative. Religious people and secular people, married people and people who are living together, all have an ineradicable sense that when a man and woman are a couple, they are not supposed to be hitting on other people.

The bottom line: The commandment lines up with life and wisdom. Happiness in a relationship is far more likely when we follow the rules. Violating them may be exciting. Adultery may be thrilling – until you're caught or until you're dumped. Adultery does not produce the happiness it promises.

When God said, “don't jump in bed with someone you're not married to,” he wasn't being a scold. He wasn't trying to crimp your style. He wasn't trying to limit your fun or pleasure. To the contrary, he was offering you wisdom for life. He was offering you a guide to richer happiness, to lasting pleasure.

God likes sex. There is a fantastic, holy blessing in having sweet, rich sex. And research appears to strongly support the religious notion that sex is the sweetest and richest when it happens inside a life-long marriage.

This is the wisdom that lies behind the commandment, “Do not commit adultery.”

Let's take another commandment that radically contradicts contemporary culture.

Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy.

One of the realities of contemporary life is a certain element of frenzy. There is constant pressure to produce, to perform. If you're not busy, you're not living.

Sabbath interrupts that frenzy. God directs us to ignore “the real world” for 24 hours every week. “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you are to labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath fo the lord your God. In it, you are to do no work. No you, nor your son or daughter, your servants, your ox or donkey, or even the stranger that is in within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them. Then he rested on the seventh day and made it holy.”

For me this makes instinctive sense. Because I've been involved in Sabbath-keeping for my entire life. But for many people, this is a radical idea. FOR AN ENTIRE 24 HOURS every week, from sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday, you are to reject work. Boycott the capitalist system (or socialist system). Both systems conceive of humans as primarily economic units.

Sabbath is a celebration of a different conception of human beings. It is a healthy expression of the romantic ideal that imagines the most important thing in the universe to be a relationship. When two people fall in love, everything else becomes secondary. Jobs, reputations, right and wrong, parental approval. Sabbath agrees with the core idea. Relationship is the most important. And not just relationship with God.

Sabbath balances hyper secular people and hyper religious people.

To secular people, the Sabbath says: There is something more important than the condition of your house, the size of your bank account, your GPA, the score achieved by your favorite team. More important than all of these is your relationship with God and with real, live human beings.

To hyper religious people, the Sabbath says a relationship with God is not enough. God did not make us for relationship with him alone. A genuinely spiritual person is deeply involved with family and friends. Healthy spiritual life includes taking time every week to deliberately cultivate primary relationships.

If you are married, Sabbath shows up reminding you that you are a sexual being and that God designed men and women to enjoy each other. (What else could the Genesis story mean when it tells about Adam and Eve being created on Friday and entering into the sacred time of Sabbath naked.)

There is also a rich theological meaning in the Sabbath. Sabbath was Adam and Eve's first full day of life. They were loved and approved of by God before they ever accomplished a single thing. Like a baby who is the delight of its parents when all it has managed to do is draw enough breath to cry, so humans are a delight to God merely by being alive. Our lives, your life, gives pleasure and joy to God, simply because you are breathing. What do you have to do to make God happy? Breathe.

Of course, God has dreams for you. Dreams that you will do good, make beauty and be successful in your relationships. He wants the baby to grow. He wants the student to learn. He wants the apprentice to master his craft. Of course.

But he is not waiting for your success before embracing you as his own. Sabbath celebrates God's delight in humanity. It is the first statement of the gospel. Our bright future is secured by the promise and competence of God.

God loves us even when we violate his law. The point of obeying the law is not to make God like you. The point of obeying is to participate in the good life God has in mind for you. Smart people obey. Dumb people end up wishing they had.

Life works best when we order it according to God's law. Relationships, society, families – all work best when we are lawful.

The commandments – the Ten Commandments, the Two Great Commandments, the commands Jesus outlined in his sermon on the mount – the commandments are designed to enrich ourselves, to help us be wise. The commandments are the natural overflow of God's love.