To begin with, for any consideration of rules, one must differentiate between God’s rules, from revelation and depth of tradition, and merely legislated secular rules. Even as the latter holds much weight with God, some, say, like the old Jim Crow laws of the segregationist South, beg for disobedience, though the jail cell may yet beckon.
The straight-and-narrow of God is the widest path of all in its openness to goodness. Sin has only one’s own narrow, self-centered range, however wide the highway for the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd on it. The path to sanctity and glory, as well, is guided by God. The sinful path is guided but by Satan, at a best that is worst.
Obedience to God’s Commandments leaves one open to every form and means of faith, hope and charity, and all the virtues rising from these. Still, the relatively familiar Commandments of the Decalogue are primarily formed around prohibitions founded and footed in natural law.
We have few positive Commandments, except in our relationship to God (i.e., put Him first, honor and treasure His Name, set aside the Sabbath for communion with Him). No other Commandments so demand good actions except as reparations for sinful offenses. Even honoring one’s parents has to come with a promise make it seem less ‘negative’ for effects. See Exodus 20:12 & Deuteronomy 5:16; though Leviticus 19:3 aligns parental honor with Sabbath keeping, that God’s Fatherhood have its reflection. However, by and large, the Decalogue leaves the ‘to-do’ list of goodness wide open to be singularly affected by God’s graces, and uniquely effected by each unique human child of God.
It should be noted that while Jesus our Christ, and Son of God, summarized the Decalogue into Two Great Commandments, the Decalogue itself is our Father’s summary of natural law, written in my (and every) heart, spirit and mind that my (and your) will be guided. As noted, that the first three natural-law Commandments are about my own and each person’s (i.e., sinner’s) relationship with God, I do well not to treat them lightly. He might as well have told us: “Get these first three right, and the next seven are a piece of gooey cinnamon manna.”
It is by God’s natural law that He gives me the yearning and need to be His, with Him and in Him. So truly needy of God am I, His very Name is to be most respectfully loved and honored. He made His day every week to have us together in that bond of which I am so needy. How can His love be any more greatly reflected than in His choice to make Himself so vital to me, even as He gives me the free-will choice not to accept my very own, and my own very, depthless need for Him?
