I get it.

You’re cool and trendy and not bound by silly traditional legalism. Fiction is fictional and art challenges your mind and pushing the limits is what helps you grow. When your parents were your age, holiness meant no fun, and the Bible was God’s Holy Rulebook.

You’re serious about worship and want God’s best for your life and you know that God is centered on relationship, not on rules. You want your expressions of worship to be genuine, you want your life to reflect His truth, and you know that God promised to set us free, not constrict us with empty traditions and hollow obedience to outdated restrictions.

I get that.

Could we agree that laying out a bunch of rules to define how life should work is too simplistic? The Pharisees and teachers of religious law found that out. Ten rules became twenty rules became a hundred rules to become six hundred and thirteen rules. Governments find that out all the time. The Constitution needed a Bill of Rights which needed clarification by courts and amendments and – you get it, right?

Even if you do keep it to one or two rules, there will always be questions the rules can’t answer. Rules can’t define how life works.

However, a lack of rules doesn’t equal freedom either. Take away all the rules, and – well, that’s impossible. Life will always contain rules at some point, whether it’s the rule about not worshiping any other God, or the rule about objects that aren’t moving not moving until something moves them.¹

What I’m getting at is this – life isn’t all about rules, therefore, being a follower of Christ and living a life that honors God isn’t all about rules either. Just as importantly, living in the freedom that Jesus provides doesn’t mean that there aren’t some rules involved. There are. Our freedom has boundaries and limits. Moreover, those boundaries and limits aren’t Enemy-produced, joy-killers, designed to rob us of our Rights as Children of the King. The boundaries and limits of our freedom are good, healthy, and helpful to us.

The point is…

There’s this movie.² It’s popular. By all accounts it’s a good movie. The original story is based on a true account of a Christian couple and God’s principles of faithfulness, fidelity, honor, and true love.

But the movie adds some things and takes away others. Among the things it adds is language that is objectionable to me. According to the website Movieguide.org, the language is “heavy.” For that reason, it is not a movie I am comfortable going to, nor is it something I will allow my 15-year-old daughter to see.³

The point is…

She sees your tweets. She hears you talking about seeing that same movie. You’re even going with a group of friends. Her friends.

Why are you so hung up about swearing? She hears it all the time, right? Don’t you think your legalism is more harmful than words that have been selectively labeled as “obscene”? Isn’t seeing a great, inspiring story worth it?

Obviously, we have different convictions. I’m not asking you to change yours. I only want to remind you that freedom isn’t easy. Every choice has a price. And the vows we make before God – they really are important.

¹What I’m cleverly trying to say is that laws of God and laws of nature will still be present whether we want them to be or not. Jump out of an airplane and you will still have to deal with the law of gravity, no matter how free you feel.

²This  movie is The Vow, but the specifics don’t matter. There will always be a movie, television show, book, song, or some other thing that isn’t  particularly healthy for us. We can justify partaking of it in many ways. We could also find many unhealthy things about it. The conflict remains.

³Ironically, it is another movie that inspires me to make this decision. Specifically, it’s the dad in the movie Courageous, telling his daughter that he is responsible for his daughter’s heart. The health and safety of my daughter’s heart, mind, body, and soul are important to me, important enough for boundaries and limits designed to encourage growth and limit harm.