Welcome to Our House: House Rules
In our house growing up, we had a few house rules that I still remember.
Things like, after school you had to do your homework first. Then, after your homework was done, you could do whatever you wanted to do.
That was a great rule in our house until I hit 4th grade. That year, for whatever reason, I had truck loads of homework. Most nights, with the help of my parents, I would start my homework as soon as I got home & not finish until bedtime!
My wife & I have three kids in our family. We’re always trying to figure out the best rules for our house & for our family. So this week I went looking for some new ideas for House Rules just so we can stay on top of things in our house.
Here’s one list I found that I thought you might like.
HOUSE RULES:
If you open it, close it.
If you turn it on, turn it off.
If you sleep on it, make it up.
If you wear it, hang it up.
If you drop it, pick it up.
If you eat out of it, wash it.
If it howls, feed it.
I’m not sure if that last one just applies to pets, or if that applies to people too?
I also found this…
Rules for Dating My Daughter.
As a dad of 2 daughters, I found these extremely helpful:
Get a job.
Understand I don’t like you.
I’m everywhere.
You hurt her, I hurt you.
I don’t mind going back to jail.
And remember, she tells me everything.
And, for all of you who are married in the room, I found these house rules for married couples. There are really only 2 rules.
Rules for a Great Marriage:
- The wife is always right.
- If the wife is wrong, see rule number 1.
Church Rules
We make up rules for just about everything. We have rules for how life is supposed to work in our house. We have rules for the sports we play.
There are written rules then there are the unwritten rules.
Some people think that rules were meant to be broken. Some of you are rule followers & nothing drives you more crazy than when people don’t play by the rules.
Some of you, you love the rules. And some of you, don’t!
In church, we’ve always been really good at coming up with rules.
I heard about one church where the men were required to wear a suit coat & tie each Sunday. If you were visiting & didn’t know, that was ok. They had a closet with extra suit coats & a tie you could borrow! I don’t think I would be too welcome there!
Every church has its rules. Maybe you grew up in a church where the unwritten rule was that each Sunday worship always started with 2 songs & a prayer!
If you think about it, we actually have a lot of rules for church. Some are written. Most are unwritten. Some of them make sense & if we’re honest, some of them don’t.
Some of the rules we have exist because we’ve always done things a certain way. And now, that’s the rule. And there was a time when some of those rules in church were used in a legalistic way & actually caused many people harm.
Sometimes those rules brought shame, that legalism caused pain & many people left church all together. Their view of God was shaped by their experience in church & if God was anything like what they just experienced, no thanks.
So what happened, at least in the world around us, is that the church became known more for what it’s against than what it’s for. It became known for it’s rules, for all the things you couldn’t do if you were a Christian. For all the things you couldn’t do if you belonged to that church.
God’s Rules
What’s interesting is that God never intended for rules, especially the rules that He gave, to cause hurt or harm. In fact, quite the opposite.
So when Jesus came, He knew he had to point people in a different direction. He knew He had to remind people that keeping the rules was never really about keeping the rules, but about experiencing life in God. The rules of God were never meant for oppression, hurt or power.
The rules were simply a road map to the way of Life.
Peter talked about these rules.
Peter did life with Jesus for nearly 3 years. He lived with Jesus, walked with Jesus, ate meals with Jesus. He was up close when Jesus taught the masses & he had a back stage pass so that Jesus could explain His teaching to His closest disciples.
If anyone knew about which rules were important to Jesus, it would be Peter.
The only problem was that Peter knew that more often than not, Jesus broke the rules. Jesus wasn’t very good at keeping the rules, at least not the rules that the religious leaders emphasized.
Jesus did things on the Sabbath you weren’t supposed to do. He touched people you weren’t supposed to touch. He welcomed people into His presence He wasn’t supposed to spend time with. Jesus was different than anyone he had ever met before. And He understood the rules differently.
The Rules According to Peter
And now, Peter wants to pass on what he learned from Jesus about being in a faith community to the church family.
They basically describe the way things are supposed to be in our house.
Here they are…
Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude. Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will grant you his blessing.
Over & over again throughout 1 Peter you’ll see Peter telling the church & reminding the church how to live. But Peter isn’t interested in behavior modification. What Peter is interested in is LIFE CHANGE.
In other words, in light of what Christ has done for you something has to change about you.
These house rules, they’re not really rules at all. They are just evidence of a life RULED by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because… A changed life is the evidence of a life ruled by the love of Christ.
[Tweet “A changed life is the evidence of a life ruled by the love of Christ.”]Let’s live like Jesus in our house. Let’s love like Jesus in our house. Let’s not just welcome people into our house, but let’s show them how life is supposed to be in the way we love, forgive, care for & treat each other in our house.
Why?
Because a changed life is the evidence of a life ruled by the love of Christ.
