Don’t Cheat, Follow the Rules

 By Daniel Cain (David's brother)

“But we don't want to offend these people. So go to the lake and drop in a line. Pull up the first fish you hook, and in its mouth you will find a coin worth enough for my Temple tax and yours. Take it and pay them our taxes.” [Matthew 17:27 GNT]

 

What’s one of the first things you remember being taught in school—not only in the classroom, but also especially on the playground during recess? Follow the rules. If you cheat, then you get penalized, or maybe even removed from playing the game. (See an example of cheating in the picture here -- The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds, by 17^th Century French artist Georges de La Tour.) What’s the logic or rationale behind this? Think about the following ordinary situation. You’re in line at the store, with the item you intend to buy, along with other people who also intend to buy items. Everyone is in line, waiting his/her turn. But then someone comes along, and he/she doesn’t want to wait in line. Most would respond that it doesn’t matter if someone doesn’t like or agree with a rule. Everyone has to wait in line.

 

Is there something worse than having to follow a rule that I don’t like or agree with? I think the answer is “Yes”—you risk offending not just one or two people, but everyone who is following the rules. Maybe the rule is a bad one, but as long as everyone is following it, you also need to follow it, because by not following it, you risk offending everyone else, and communicating that you think you’re more important than anyone else.

 

Maybe that last idea is really the root of what’s most offensive about breaking the rules. If you consciously, willfully break the rules by cutting in line, speeding past others on the highway, lying (and thus, breaking the 9th of God's Ten Commandments) in order to pay less taxes, then you’re acting as if you’re more important than anyone else. And that attitude is not only offensive to all other people who walk on earth, but also to God who created everyone and should know how everyone ranks.

 

For God judges everyone by the same standard. [Romans 2:11; GNT]

 

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. [Galatians 3:28; NIV]

 

 

See information on the picture here: File:Georges de La Tour - Cheater with the Ace of Diamonds - WGA12334.jpg - Wikimedia Commons…This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. {{PD-1996}} – public domain in its source country on January 1, 1996 and in the United States.