SIMPLE DO'S

        These are two pages from one of my exhaustive 
Bible concordances, but the tiny print and compact
columns are probably a good picture of ALL
those 613 laws facing early Jews.

The law library at the University of Washington was my favorite place to study—away from roommate drama—during the two quarters I attended there (1969-70). No, I wasn't a law student (I was completing some journalism classes), but I knew that my need of a quiet study place could happen amidst the tall shelves of thick law books. So many laws! Thousands of tomes to interpret them!

A few years later I learned of an burdensome spiritual number: 613. That's how many commands good Jews of Bible times were expected to obey. Of that number, 365 were things not to do, and 248 were things to do. Of the “police force” (the Pharisees) pushing all those laws on people, Jesus declared, WOE! All of Matthew 23 jabs at the picky-picky laws they felt duty-bound to impose.

I'm grateful God set the “basics” at ten (commandments), not hundreds. And that Jesus augmented the stark “Thou shalt” and “Thou shalt not” commands of Moses' time with the compassionate do's and don'ts with The Beatitudes (Matthew 5) as well as His other teachings. Also: that scripture includes other parcels of teaching that support and explain the basics of simple, godly living.

One such passage is Psalm 15, by King David. He wasn't perfect, but he loved God. As a warrior-king, not a priest, he couldn't serve in the Jerusalem temple. But he seemed to yearn for a life of devotion such as he observed in the priests who lived and worked on God's “holy hill” (v. 1). The character traits he highlighted are still true for believers today.

*INTEGRITY. David spoke of a seeking a “blameless walk” (v. 2), despising vile lifestyles (v. 4a) and honoring godliness (v. 4b).

*TRUTHFULNESS. His spiritual role models had impeccable speech (“speaks truth from his heart,” v. 2b), and didn't slander or slur another's reputation (v. 5).

*GODLY CONDUCT. For this character trait, David looked at how someone handled money. He commended those who kept their word “even when it hurts” (v. 4), lent money without exorbitant interest (“usury”), and never accepted bribes (particularly, never against “the innocent”--v. 5).

Throughout all three of these character traits I hear echoes of the Ten Commandments and Jesus' teachings about loving and serving one another. And I'm grateful I'm not burdened by more than 600 Levitical do's and don'ts of long ago. The traits David highlighted transcend the centuries. And they can be journey markers until Christ calls us Home—to Heaven, where integrity, truthfulness, and godly conduct are the norm, for everyone there.