Not the mark

Unfortunately, one unavoidable pitfall of commandments is the human tendency to make them the end instead of the means. Recall that the Hebrew word for “sin” means “missing the mark.” To make commandments the end is to make them the mark, instead of Christ.

The target is not a list of rules. God’s rules are a means to knowing him. They are not equivalent to knowing him. Knowing him is knowing his character.

Commandments are instructions to direct you towards the mark. They are not the mark itself. They are approximate estimates that bring you closer to how God is: what he does, what he experiences, and why he does what he does and experiences what he does.

Keeping Christ as the mark requires remembering that, no matter how many commandments you receive or what benefits you have seen from them, there may exist a more advanced understanding of God that expands or contradicts what you have already learned. Jesus did not refuse the Father when the Father taught him higher laws which superseded the law of Moses.

There are people who use an understanding of progression to excuse themselves from what their conscience dictates to them. As we follow Jesus’ example in being open to higher laws, we ought to exercise caution that we are not inventing exemptions from situations because they are difficult or costly. As Jesus grew in knowledge of the Father,¹ he received increased persecution. If you find your life getting easier as a result of what you believe is following God,² you might reconsider your presumptions.

There are people who use their obedience to certain rules, which they believe are commandments from God, to feel confident that they are in alignment with God. When you make a static list of commandments your gauge of obedience to God, you make the stepping stone of commandments into an impassable stumbling block.

As a prophet taught in the time when Israel was under the law of Moses:

14 Therefore, if ye teach the law of Moses, also teach that it is a shadow of those things which are to come—
15 Teach them that redemption cometh through Christ the Lord, who is the very Eternal Father. Amen. (Mosiah 16)

Those who replace obedience to God with obedience to a list of rules can only do so by ignoring what their conscience is saying. Their conscience will identify situations outside of the scope of the rules, and it may even directly contradict the rules themselves.

Those who limit their obedience to a list of rules are not only living in sin, they are measurably worse off than those who freely admit they are living in disobedience to God.

People who believe that their responsibility is limited to keeping a few commandments will be tricked into thinking they are qualified for everything God has to give, that they know everything there is to know, and that they have a relationship with God.

They will find out, sooner or later, that their belief has prevented them from receiving what God wanted to give them, including the many things they did not know and the relationship with God they could have had.