I am a former math teacher. I love helping out students, though. I got a call from a family member this week about helping her teenage son with some math homework. His teacher gave him an opportunity to turn in some late work, and his mom really wanted him to understand how to do the work. He first did the whole assignment on his own, sent me pictures of his work, and then called me so that we could go over how he did it. He understood the concept of how to get most of the answers correct, but he did not do it in the correct format.
People can try to argue that it should only matter that the correct numbers were obtained, but the learning objective was not about the correct numbers, it was about HOW to solve similar problems by using an equation. Some of the questions were only "set up an equation to solve the story problem", and not work it out. He did not know how to set up the equation, which was the objective. I asked why he did not know the proper format, and he said that he was not paying attention (fell asleep) when the teacher was giving the lesson, so he missed the important part. He had chosen to be lazy, and he was now dealing with the consequences. He did not like being in the position that he was in, and promised to do better from now on. I hope that he will pay better attention, but I am available to help him out again.
Can this same type of situation happen to Christians? I am not talking about falling asleep during a sermon (not calling anyone out on this), but missing the important parts of a God lesson. We will make mistakes in our walk with the LORD, but we should continue to strive toward Him. We should "hear" his Word by reading in Scripture daily, and give ourselves grace if we miss doing it. Following all of the rules are not going to save us, though. Just ask the Pharisees who scolded Jesus' disciples for not ceremoniously washing their hands before eating. The Pharisees were so caught up with people following God's laws, they forgot about GOD. They made life tougher for everyone, when they could have enjoyed the blessings of God himself. God sent his Son for us so that we can live.
Matthew 15: 3-9
Then Jesus was approached by Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem, who asked, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands when they eat.”
3 He answered them, “Why do you break God’s commandment because of your tradition? 4 For God said: Honor your father and your mother; and, Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death. 5 But you say, ‘Whoever tells his father or mother, “Whatever benefit you might have received from me is a gift committed to the temple,” 6 he does not have to honor his father.’ In this way, you have nullified the word of God because of your tradition. 7 Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said:
8 This people[g] honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.9 They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines human commands.”
John 3:14-21
14 “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. 19 This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. 21 But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”
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