Daily Devotion: Common Sense About Rules, Part Two

Bible Reading: James 4:1-7

Key Verse: Verse 7 – "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

Key Words: Submit yourselves

I draw your attention to verse 7 and the word submit. It is not a popular word for our day of “no rules, just rights” which seems to be the philosophy of our day and it is catching on rapidly. I heard of a pastor of another denomination, “Baptist are laden down with rules. If you are sick of rules, come on over and join us, we don’t care about rules, we just care about worship.” That statement is not only “high-minded,” it is unbiblical.

The word rules in the Bible comes from the Hebrew word “maschal.” It means to control or to umpire. Can you imagine a sporting event such as football, basketball or baseball with no rules? It would be total anarchy. Can you imagine driving to work with no rules to guide us on the highway? (If you think it is pleasant, visit Brazil. Hundreds of people die daily because of no highway rules.)

The Bible gives us all kinds of rules in order that our worship of God may be organized and glorifying to God (see I Corinthians 14:40). Let me share some of the rules with you.

1. The rule of giving (I Cor. 16:2).
2. The rule for spiritually feeding the flock (I Pet. 5:2-7).
3. The rule of church discipline (Matt. 18:15-20).
4. The rule of dress (I Tim. 2:9).
5. The rule of faithfulness (I Cor. 4:2 and Heb. 10:25).
6. The rule for music (Col. 3:16).
7. The rule for unity (Ephes. 4:3).
8. The rule for righteousness (Titus 3:1-2).
9. The rule for deaconship (I Tim. 3:8-13).
10. The rule for pastors (I Tim. 3:1-7).

And the list goes on and on. No rules, just rights! What a humanistic, worldly, unbiblical statement!

What to do:
✞ The problem with some people is they have no rule over their spirit (Proverbs 25:28).

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