Heavy Attitudes
For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. 1 John 5:3
Burdensome – It’s a real dilemma, isn’t it? John, under the inspiration of the Spirit, tells us that the summation of God’s love is found in keeping His commandments. He doesn’t say keeping the commandments of the Messiah (although he certainly could have since they are the same as the commandments in the Torah). That means John must be referring to the only commandments that he knew, namely, the commandments found in the only Bible he had, the Hebrew Scriptures. If these are inspired words, then there is little point in trying to argue that John didn’t mean what every Jew in his time would have understood by the term torah. But here’s the dilemma. John says that these commandments are not burdensome. I don’t know about you, but I find this very hard to swallow. It seems to me that a great deal of God’s instruction in the Torah is burdensome. I know that John speaks the truth, but I don’t find that it is a truth that resonates in my life. I guess I better dig a little deeper here to see where I have the problem.
John uses the Greek word barus. Used metaphorically, it means burdensome. But literally, it means heavy. It can be used both positively (Matthew 23:23 “important”) and negatively (Matthew 23:4 “heavy loads”). What’s more important is that John is echoing his Messiah. “Come to me all you who are heavy laden” (Matthew 11:28) “for my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30) where Jesus’ words are translated with a synonym of barus. If John and Jesus both say that keeping the commandments is not excruciatingly difficult (and God Himself says this in Exodus), then my struggle must be the result of something I am missing. How can Jesus, John and God all tell me that following Torah will not wear me down when all I can see ahead of me are rules and regulations that will interfere with my present life?
Oh, now I get it. My desire to hang on to my present lifestyle is the reason that these instructions seem so heavy. I don’t want to change the way that I do things, so, of course, it seems difficult. God doesn’t tell me that obedience is painless. He tells me that obedience changes my attitude and in the process of being obedient, He will alter the desires of my heart. God’s instructions are like a walk on the beach, but I can’t enjoy the walk on the beach until I get out of the house and step onto the sand. As long as I fight God about staying home, any effort to get me out to the beach will seem burdensome. But once I feel the sand between my toes, the water on my ankles and the gentle breezes on my face, my attitude about walking on the beach will change. So, here’s the challenge. Will I trust John and Jesus and God? Will I decide that they really are telling me the truth about the commandments? Will I commit to their exhortations and become obedient, trusting that by being obedient my antagonism will be transformed? Or will I refuse, thinking that I know better what is right for me? Let’s see. There’s a proverb about this dilemma. I think it goes something like this: “Lean not on your own understanding.” If you want God to direct your paths, then you will have to come to terms with John’s declaration. If the love of God is found in keeping His commandments, then it’s simply impossible to expect to find a life of peace and joy without keeping them. We can argue all we want about how strange and uncomfortable and unnecessary they seem to be, but that doesn’t change anything about John’s declaration. And it doesn’t help us get to the beach either.
Topical Index: Obedience
