Every Letter, Every Pen Stroke (Matthew 5:18)

In 1 Corinthians 4, Paul quotes a saying that he apparently had shared with the Corinthians during his time of ministry there: "Do not go beyond what is written."  I think that remains an excellent saying for us as Christians to remember.  There is a universal tendency in Christianity to want to go beyond what is in Scripture.  Somehow, we like to add rules to the ones that God has given us.  So God says don't be drunk; we say no Christian can be spiritual if he or she drinks.  God says give as you feel led; we say you have to give ten percent.  God says don't let anyone judge you by a religious holiday observance; we say you better show up at church on Christmas and Easter if you want to be known as godly.  We are always adding our own rules and regulations to those God has given us.  At first, this seems an odd thing to do.  Most of us would say that we don't like rules.  Today, there is a whole political movement that is at least in part based on a hatred of over regulation.  Why do we go beyond what is written when we hate rules so much?  Perhaps we add to God's rules for the very same reason the Corinthians did.  Remember what we have said about the people in the Corinthian church: they were in competition with one another to see who was the most spiritual.  Rules help us define who is spiritual.  Having a checklist for godliness lets us more easily define who is doing well.  The more rules there are on the checklist, the easier it is to differentiate between the less godly, the average godly, and the superior godly.  Plus, having our own rules makes us seem more righteous than we really are.  We typically can meet our own standards of righteousness far more easily than we can meet God's.  Our rules and regulations frequently have to do with appearances.  We can fake those.  God's rules often have to do with the heart and mind and personality, areas where we have far less control over ourselves.