Rules or Relationship?

By Dr. Ron Jones

One day, my daughter came home from school a little annoyed. Apparently, her eighth-grade English teacher had issued a new two-page list of classroom rules addressing what the teacher called ongoing bad behavior among all her students. Hmmm.

That reminds me of the Pharisees in Jesus's time, who believed the road to righteousness was paved with a long list of rules. Some estimate they added more than 600 to the Law of Moses. Jesus said, "Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:20).

A tedious list of dos and don'ts never moves the human heart closer to God. It also rarely works in the classroom.

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