Rules Defined

I was talking with Esther about this a bit at dinner tonight. She told me I needed to define what I mean by "rules" since that means different things to different people. Some would consider the Ten Commandments the "rules." That's not what I mean. A direct edict from God like the Ten Commandments is pretty hard to miss and pretty hard to argue against unless you want to outright rebel against God. What I'm talking about is to take a concept or principal from scripture and, through a single human interpretation, synthesize a hard and fast rule from it. I believe we are given principals in order to wrestle through the application of them every day we live. The synthesized rule may make sense in a given situation, but it's an application with blinders on - a single simplistic perspective on what may be a complex and multifaceted situation. It may sound like I'm pushing situation ethics here, trying to twist scripture to support whatever I want or want not to do, but I'm not. I'm saying that taking the first interpretation of a scriptural principal that you happen to come across and leaving it at that, never looking or considering or studying any further is lazy at best and possibly very dangerous. I believe we are meant to wrestle our way through the understanding of truth. I don't mean making up our own truth. But I think living by a list of synthesized, one-size-fits-all predetermined rules with a simple black and white flow chart mentality constitutes making up one's own truth.

Rules

A friend recently shared a frustrating experience with another friend who was foisting some rules of behavior on her that this "friend" thought she should be abiding by. Rules that my friend had no conviction or other reason to follow. This situation made me think of the following.
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Another thought on "rules": My observation is that generally speaking, those who focus on a set of rules are hiding behind their list to try to be okay. But no list will ever make you okay with God or anyone else. The list only serves to separate the real you from the facade you present to the world. Your facade relates to others and the real you is isolated and lives alone. And living by a list is a lazy, perfunctory way to live. The rule becomes more important than the person standing in front of you. Real life is organic and messy. Wrestling through it well requires the grace of God for all parties involved. A list of rules requires no grace at all. Indeed, I submit that it is anti-grace. Learning of God precept upon precept, concept upon concept, principal upon principal, is an incredibly good and powerful thing. But the application of God's will (revealed in his Word, not by human edict) in this world through my personal will upon my sphere of influence is effective only by grace, not by list of rules.