If you want to join a gym to work out in Brazil, you have to have a cardiologist’s permission, says the government. There are so many rules and regulations to government, it’s impossible to keep up with them all. If government wants to catch you on something, it won’t have to search far for some transgression of the law.
Estimates say that the U.S. tax code has more than 73,000 pages. Not all that volume applies to everyone, but income tax is so complicated, many people have to run to specially trained preparers.
In Brazil, a whole industry of despachantes, or private brokers, operates to help you maneuver through the halls of government. The Internet has helped somewhat, but both government and regulations have grown in recent years.
God has no bureaucracy, no human hierarchy, no convoluted processes of compliance. No bureaucrats. No government agents or employees who can ignore you, complicate the process, or hide needed resources from you. No complicated collection of regulations, laws, rules, and ordinances that one has to go to an expert for.
The Lord gives us commandments, principles, and examples. They are required. But they are relatively few and simple, easy for anyone to understand, within the grasp and practice of every child of God.
Man has complicated religion. He has made religion into a system of government, a complex system of theology, a maze of special days, observances, and rituals. What man does in the name of religion has nothing to do with God.
God’s resources are freely available. God is always at hand. With Scripture, prayer, and participation with his people, we have all we need. We must meet the conditions of God, in faith and obedience, but these are in place to provide access to eternal salvation and victory over sin, not obscure them or make them more difficult.
“And his commandments do not weigh us down, because everyone who has been fathered by God conquers the world” 1 Jn 5.3-4.
