Successful Living > Ground Rules > Who Sets The Rules?

Who Sets the Rules?
The higher authority

Virtually every wisdom tradition around the world believes that God, the holy, omniscient, omni powerful, omni present, all loving being who created mankind, also provided us with the equivalent of a "life instruction manual" in the form of universal law or "first principles"--which we refer to as ground rules.

These rules, along with general rules for successful living have been handed down to us through what we call the wisdom of the ages, primarily found in the Jewish ancient wisdom books, particularly the books of Proverbs, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and Deuteronomy, that are now incorporated in the Christian Bible in what we call The Old Testament.

"At creation God revealed His law in the natural order and in the moral laws of the Jews--written in the Ten Commandments. This law is the heart and core of the scripture! (Dr. W. A. Van Gemeren, Professor of the Old Testament, Trinity Divinity School).

Much of this wisdom literature was first recorded in hand written script (thus the term scripture) by Jewish wise men, as well as some of the wisest kings of Israel, including King David who authored many of the Psalms and his son Solomon, widely acknowledged to be the wisest and wealthiest of ancient kings.

Jesus taught that to obey these laws was to "remain in God's love" (John 15:10). Conversely, ignoring or breaking these laws (or ground rules) brings physical, financial, emotional, or spiritual ruin.(Deuteronomy 30:17-18)

In Christian and Jewish tradition, these principles were known as "Gods law", summarized in the Ten Commandments God gave to the Jewish people.

A little over two thousand years ago, Jesus became known as the world's greatest teacher of the law. Jesus' parables or teachings were based on the laws found in the Hebrew Scriptures written 1,000 years earlier. Contrary to popular myth, Jesus did not seek to weaken or do away with the law, but just the opposite (Mathew 5:17-20) "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished."

Some of Jesus' teachings were written down by his followers, most notably by some of the apostles, Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John, and were adopted by the early Christian Church as part of the "cannon of scripture" in the fourth century--what Christians now refer to as the "New Testament", or part of the Holy Bible, in addition to the Hebrew scripture or "Old testament".

These specifically are referred to as the "four gospels"; meaning that they communicated the story of Jesus whom brought humanity, the good news (or Gospel) of victory over the power of evil and the keys to "the abundant life" as well as "eternal life", promised to all who accept His offer.

Every period of history and each culture has it's own context, it's own history, traditions, morals, and way of "looking at things" that act as tools for the people in that time to understand and integrate information. Ancient wisdom writers of course, calibrated their lessons to fit the understanding or context of their audience. Unfortunately, much of this context from the ancient pre-modern world is largely lost on modern or post-modern readers.

Another problem is that this "wisdom of the ages" has gone through many translations in the last three thousand years, including difficult translation from languages that do not necessarily flow well into each other.

For instance, moving from ancient Hebrew to Greek, then to Latin and finally multiple, but varied English translations, creates many challenges because Jews and Greeks used language or "word pictures" quite differently, and their concepts often don't readily translate into English thought forms or expressions.

English translators do their best to choose terminology, which in their opinion expresses the original intent of the writer.

Fortunately, we have availability of fifteen hundred years of scholarly interpretation from various Jewish and Christian traditions, all the way from early church teachings and the wisdomtreasure trove of the Byzantine Empire--(The worlds longest lasting Christian civilization {400-1400} encompassing the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa) to more recent scholarship and commentaries, all of which can help us maximize the full potential of the "wisdom of the ages" in our own lives.

Do You Recognize This Rule of Success?

One of the most fundamental rules of life is to treat others the way you would like to be treated. Treat others badly, and you will be badly treated. Be kind and generous, and empathetic, and others will return the favor. In modern parlance, what goes around comes around, often referred to as "karma"!

This rule, while ignored in practice by many, still holds such a lofty position in our culture that it has long ago earned the title of being the "golden rule".

We can actually find the golden rule first announced by Jesus in his famous "sermon on the mount", where he sums up the law of God in the ancient Hebrew scriptures that preceded him (what we call ground rules for successful living) this way: "so in everything do to others, what you would have them do to you" (Mathew 7:11).

This is just one example out of hundreds, of how life's rules can be sourced to the teachings of Jesusand then backward from Jesus to the wisdom of the ages, God's eternal universal laws as recorded in ancient Hebrew scripture (which Jesus consistently used as his point of reference).