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Why Follow the Bible? The Practical Aspects of God’s Laws

Why Follow the Bible? The Practical Aspects of God’s Laws

Last updated on: January 29, 2025 at 3:16 pm by Rick Rice

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Why Follow the Bible? The Practical Aspects of God’s Laws 2025-01-29T15:16:16-05:00 Rick Rice

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Many people reject or ignore the Bible as irrelevant to modern life. However, the Bible demonstrates the practical aspects of God’s laws for everyday life!

Scripture:

Exodus, chapters 23-24; Psalm 14; Acts, chapter 5

Exodus 23:1-9 (NASB):

You shall not give a false report; do not join your hand with a wicked person to be a malicious witness. You shall not follow the crowd in doing evil, nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to join together with a crowd in order to pervert justice; nor shall you show favor to a poor person in his dispute.

If you encounter your enemy’s ox or his donkey wandering away, you must return it to him. If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying helpless under its load, you shall not leave it helpless for its owner; you must arrange the load with him.

You shall not pervert the justice due to your needy brother in his dispute. Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent or the righteous, for I will not acquit the guilty. You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of the just. You shall not oppress a stranger, since you yourselves know the feelings of a stranger, for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Observations: The Practical Aspects of God’s Laws

Many people who have only a passing acquaintance with Scripture might be surprised to know how practical many of God’s commands are. Humans as a whole tend to focus on the broad picture of submission to God’s authority. Because they don’t want to submit, they rail against particular commands (particularly, but not solely, those dealing with sex). But passages like this one – and there are many passages like this – deal with the basic issues of living in community with God and each other.

One factor that often comes up is the application of Old Testament commandments to those who are part of the new covenant – the New Testament. People who don’t believe want to treat all Old Testament passages equally, without regard to salvation history or biblical context. For instance, when talking about the biblical commands against homosexuality, I once was asked, “Well, do you eat shellfish?” The presumption evidently was that if I didn’t follow Old Testament dietary laws, I couldn’t support any Old Testament commandments.

However, such an argument ignores both salvation history and biblical context. The New Testament clearly abrogates the dietary laws. Jesus Himself said, “There is nothing outside the person which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which come out of the person are what defile the person” (Mark 7:15). Mark then clarifies that by saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean (Mark 7:19). Christians should interpret the Old Testament consistently, using a standard of interpretation rather than a case-by-case determination. I think there are two basic standards: either everything in the Old Testament continues to be binding unless specifically eliminated by the New Testament, or everything in the Old Testament is not binding unless specifically retained by the New Testament. Such a standard of interpretation keeps us from deciding based on personal desires, and keeps the focus on God’s will.

Practical Aspects of God’s Laws: Justice

One theme that runs through this passage – and, indeed, all of Scripture – is justice. God forbids the people to

Give a false report, nor join with a wicked person to be a malicious witness (v 1)
Follow the crowd in doing evil, nor join the crowd to pervert justice (v 2)
Show favor to a poor person in his dispute (v 3)
Pervert justice due to a needy brother (v 6)
Support a false charge, or kill the innocent or righteous (v 7)
Take a bribe (v 8)
Oppress a stranger (v 9)

Seven times in nine verses – evidently, God thinks this is important!

Two things caught my attention as I read these verses – one obvious, one less so. The obvious one is in verse 9, where God – again – tells the people not to oppress “strangers,” because they were also strangers in Egypt. I’ve had occasions where people have suggested to me that “things are different now,” because Israel didn’t have immigration laws, and because God expected the “strangers” who lived among His people to also follow His laws. Things may be different now, but God’s standards are not. Whenever we start to explain our failure to do what God’s Word specifically states, I think we’re getting on thin ice.

The other thing that caught my attention – the less obvious one – in in verse 3: nor shall you show favor to a poor person in his dispute. Maybe we’ve overlooked this because it doesn’t happen very often. In fact, most human systems are not rigged in favor of the poor; far from it. But the fact that things have always been tilted in one direction does not mean that we should unfairly tilt them in the other direction. Once we think we can deviate from God’s standards of justice for any reason, we will soon find that “any” reason will do.

Application: The Practical Aspects of God’s Laws – Life in Community

Not long ago, Facebook shared a “memory” from my feed that I posted several years ago. The quote was something like this: Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried. The practical aspects of God’s commands are difficult, because they go against our natural human inclinations. The problem, of course, is that our “natural human inclinations” are so bent that we cannot trust them. “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

This bent is reflected in many ways. The danger is that while we recognize it in others, we do not always recognize it in ourselves. Christians see it in those who reject God and His authority, but others often see it in our willingness to ignore certain teachings and passages in favor of others. Christians need to stop explaining away our own refusal to follow God’s commands before we can faithfully point others toward Him.

On a very practical level, let me share a few examples from our passage from Exodus 23:

Do not join your hand with a wicked person to be a malicious witness (v 1)
Do not follow the crowd in doing evil (v 2)
Help your enemy, even if he hates you (vv 4-5)
Do not oppress a stranger (v 9)

God does not call us to point out the flaws and failures of others. That’s the Holy Spirit’s job (see John 16:8). God calls us to love Him and love each other. All of the rest of the commandments hang from those two!

Prayer:

Father, thank You for reminding us that You call us to love You and each other. Thank You for also showing us that Your commands give us practical direction on how to do that. Help us today to recognize how You call us to live, and to obey. Amen.

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