Relative?

       One of the glaring things that I've noted about reading the Bible, cover to cover, is the number of times people are condemned.  It is astounding just how many times people are killed, called to die for an infraction, a seemingly arbitrary judgment by God or Moses and the volume of peoples struck down by the sword for a lack of faith. This clearly is not the God of Jesus - and yet it is.

       However you wish to read into the stories portrayed in the Pentateuch, the killings, judgments, rules and rubrics, Jesus seems far removed from those stories. Jesus was all about love, compassion, inclusiveness and more. Yet here in Hebrews we have a vivid reminder and symbolism of the 'great priest' and punishment for sin, willful ignorance and transgressing the law.

       As much as I like to put all the harsh rhetoric and readings of the Pentateuch into context and not take it literally in most cases, we are all being called to be people of God who obey the Ten Commandments. Even though I would stress the Two Great commandments that Jesus proclaimed as the most important, we are called to obedience, good behavior and codes of moral, ethical and intelligent conduct. Just because Jesus says 'these are the two great commandments', life is not all simply 'relative'. We are still called to holiness as part of our wholeness. They are inseparable.  For all of Jesus' 'transgressions' of healing on the Sabbath, touching unclean people and such, He never discarded his Jewishness or his call to us to be Holy. 

        Our lives still have loving, Godly guidance. We are still created in the image and likeness of God and as such we are called to a high standard of love and yes, even some rules of behavior. As we have seen so much in the Evangelical and political arena, you cannot simply say you are Christian and then witness it by errant, immoral and hateful behavior.

       We are indeed called to a higher standard.  

Hebrews 10:19-31

 Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

 For if we wilfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgement, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.Anyone who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy ‘on the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know the one who said, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.