We recently took a short road trip to visit the grave sight of my husband’s mother. In the midst of our travels, I kept on having to remind the kids to put their seatbelts on. One of the kids, who didn’t appreciate the constant reminder said, “I hate seatbelts.”

The very thing that could be there to potentially save his life, he looked at with disdain because it was something he didn’t want to do and it brought him discomfort.  Isn’t that scenario so true with many things in life?  More often than not, the things that are for our own good and are there to keep us safe and protected are the very things that many people despise.  

Which Candidate Do You Support in the Republican Primaries?

Ron DeSantis

Donald Trump

Chris Christie

Nikki Haley

Vivek Ramaswamy

Submit Vote

Take God’s Ten Commandments, for example.  Many people despise them.  In their own minds and evil imaginations, God’s Commandments represent to them rules that the Lord has commanded them to follow that restrict their “freedom.”  However, these rules are there for their own good and are given to them from the Lord out of a heart of love (enabling them to walk in liberty and freedom and to keep them safe), but they don’t see it that way in their own carnal minds.  

The same thing is true with driving down the highway, for example. If you follow the posted law and speed limit signs, you have don’t have to worry about getting pulled over because you’re driving in perfect liberty and freedom.  You are also keeping yourself and those driving around you as safe as possible because you are obeying the laws of the land.  

The speed limit signs are there for your good. However, you see people every day driving around you who hate that posted law and they show their distain (in action) by ignoring the signs and driving as fast as they want to (or can get away with).  Those signs represent to their lawless minds rules that they don’t want to follow.  They don’t see how the posted law is actually there for their own good! In fact, they think that true freedom will be to break the law by driving as fast as they wish, which in turn will only endanger their life and the lives of everyone around them. In truth, that isn’t freedom at all, that’s bondage!

In the same way, so people view the Law of God.  To them, rather than representing the path that will always lead them in true liberty and freedom (as they obey that Law out of a sincere love for Christ), all they see is a bunch of rules that they think will hinder them from having fun. Not true. In fact, the Bible says is Proverbs 29:18, “…he that keepeth the law, happy is he.”

Jesus said in John 14:15, “If ye love Me, keep My commandments.” So I guess then we could say that the opposite of that verse could be, “If you hate Me, don’t keep My commandments.” 

True love is to lay down rules for the good of man and to keep them from danger. True love is also to chastise and discipline when need be when someone gets out of line (Revelation 3:19). Why do you discipline your own kids, because you hate them? No, the exact opposite is true. You discipline your kids because you love them. In fact, when you see unruly children, you get the impression that their parent don’t really care about them because they are not taking the time to love them enough to even keep them in line! Parents who love their kids give them guidelines and rules to follow which will protect them and keep them safe. The same thing is true of our Heavenly Father with we, His children.

The time has come to turn love back right side up for what it truly is and see that to actually hate is to NOT tell the truth and give guidelines (specifically the Ten Commandments – Exodus 20), which God gave us. It is only when we accept the true love of Christ (which corrects and gives us rules to follow) that we will truly experience for ourselves the liberty that is found in the heart of God’s commands!