Love | Resource Guide
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Rules have their place in the spiritual life (1 Cor 7:17; 1 Tim 5:16, Phillips). An example of an appropriate rule is that if someone refuses to work, other believers should not normally provide for them (2 Thess 3:10). Rules tell us how to behave in specific situations. They tend to be formulaic and offer techniques for success (Col 2:20-23). Generally, we are not to rely on formulas (Mt 6:7; 7:13-14; 12:7 Message). The Lord’s Prayer seeks to move us away from a rule-oriented approach in prayer to one of conversational intimacy with our Abba Father. A further example, in Acts 19, is that the apostle Paul could cast out demons because he had an intimate relationship with God but the seven sons of Sceva, who simply repeated Paul’s words in a formulaic way, were unsuccessful.
Jesus wants us to avoid a formulaic approach to God. We are to avoid formulas and techniques which allegedly insure answers. Here are a few examples: repeating a specific prayer because we think this repetition will protect us from evil, claiming that merely saying ‘in the name of Jesus’ guarantees our answer, believing that we need simply ‘pray once and then know it is done,’ and asserting that we merely have to read certain prayers or Bible passages to get certain results. Such practices are simply attempts to manipulate God. Thus, rules have a place in our spiritual life, especially in the less mature stages, but should increasingly recede as our love grows.
Mature love is the goal of our walk with God. To use one common model, we start off learning how to move from sinful to holy behavior. We are students who are learning how to read the map about how to get further in the spiritual life. It is a very left-brain, precise approach which is more dominated by rules as we try to figure out what we are to believe and do in each situation. This is the purgative way. The second way is the illuminative way. This way is less focused on rules and rules are lived out with less rigidity. To a greater degree, we listen to the Holy Spirit and emphasize our need for God’s grace and mercy. It is a less performance-driven approach and an increasingly right-brain, intuitive approach than the first way. Finally, the unitive way focuses on a deep and loving relationship with the Lord where we are typically aware of His presence, normally listen to the Holy Spirit all throughout the day, and have a sense of being profoundly tied to Him much as a wife is in a ‘like-one-person’ relationship with her husband. Naturally, there is far less emphasis on rules, formulas, techniques, propositional truth, and a left-brain, rational approach.