The Rules

(c) Staci Stallings

There are at least two versions of the Ten Commandments. Did you know that? There is a Protestant version and a Catholic version. I didn't know that until about two years ago while watching a video for kids on the Ten Commandments, I suddenly noticed their numbers were off. Five was suddenly something I didn't recognize. Oh, no wait. I did recognize it, but it wasn't five. Of course, I thought they'd made a mistake. I mean it took me a long time to memorize those commandments in order, so if I was right, then they had to be wrong. Right?

It now amazes me how focused on the rules we as Christians are. We learn them, teach them, memorize them, and then proceed to use them to bop each other over the head with them.

While shopping at a Christian bookstore this afternoon, my ears suddenly caught on an angry voice at the main counter. As I listened, it became very clear this gentleman had found something wrong in the store because he was demanding that they take the offending item off the shelf. The manager calmly explained that first he didn't have the power to do that and secondly the item was based on a certain version of the Bible.

Now, I'll admit I'm not a Biblical scholar. I know the Catholic version adds like five books toward the beginning, but other than that, if I simply picked a version off the shelf, I couldn't tell you what version it was. So, the two men proceeded over to the Bible shelves, which happened to be right next to where I was shopping.

Having gone through this fruitless exercise myself, I knew what they would find. There are no numbers to the commandments as listed in the Bible. Sure enough, the man said, "Well, all the words are there, but they combined this first one and then chopped the last one into two. That's not right. I want to talk to the store owner."

The manager had no choice. He got the store owner. In minutes they were back. The store owner said that the salesman she had purchased the posters from had explained that the poster he now held was the Catholic version of the Commandments. Well, that was just ridiculous. The Commandments were the Commandments. They don't change. Do they?

I seriously considered stepping in but decided against it. I'm sure you're asking, "Why? You should step in and defend your faith." Ah, but I wouldn't have been defending my faith. I would've been defending my religion. And the difference is gaping.

You see, my faith is that I believe God is right in my heart every minute of every day. My faith says His Spirit guides my every step. My faith says He loves me no matter what, and I am only to follow His voice and let Him lead. My religion says the Commandments are supposed to be numbered a certain way. My religion says this is the code you must follow to be considered a member of this religion.

There was a time when my religion was more important to me than my faith because I really didn't understand the difference. Now I do. So, to me, it really doesn't matter what order we put the rules in. What matters is how we are living our lives every moment of every day. The very real question you have to ponder is this: Is my faith about the order of the rules, or is it about God? Once we get that in order, we can stop arguing about what Number Five is because it won't matter anymore anyway. But it is interesting how indignant we become when somebody goes changing the rules we've learned on us. I mean, goodness, when you're living by the rules, it's hard enough to get it right even when they don't change!

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