A Good Father’s Commandment

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The Commandment in the Garden

When God made the human race, he gave our first parents dominion, meaningful work, marriage, the goods of the earth, and best of all, a relationship with Him. But He gave that original couple one more gift too.  He gave them a commandment. He gave them a “Thou Shalt Not.” He said, “You may eat of any tree in the Garden except one – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – of that one you are forbidden to eat.” But wait, why would we call that commandment a gift? Isn’t it a restriction, a burden, a taking away of their freedom? No. It’s a gift because it’s a warning to avoid actions that could destroy them.

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Don’t Put that Thing in Your Mouth: it’s Bad for You

Why would a father give commands to his new children? I can answer that question. A father gives his children commandments because he understands the way they work better than they do. For example, when my kids were little, they wanted to pick up and eat everything on the ground. That was fine when it was Cheerios on the kitchen floor. But they were really attracted to yellow snow.

Now I understand my kids’ digestive system better than they do when they’re little. So, I say to them, “No, no – don’t put yellow snow in your mouth. You don’t want to eat that. It’s really bad for you. It will make you sick.” No wonder God’s first commandment to his children was, “Don’t put that thing in your mouth. It could kill you.”

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The Child’s Lack of Understanding

When I tell my kids don’t eat the yellow snow or, or when I take something bad away from them and say “No,” they always give me the same look. It’s a look that says, “What’s your problem? I wasn’t hurting you! What kind of sick authority figure are you, just coming along and preventing me from doing something I enjoy? Does it give you a power-trip to just interfere with other people’s lives, is that it? Shame on you!” (It’s a very complicated look).

But the point is, they don’t understand how they are made, and they don’t understand the danger. But that doesn’t mean my commandment isn’t legitimate and important for them to follow. So too, lots of people don’t understand God’s commandments

They don’t understand the ten commandments, or the sermon on the mount, or the moral teachings of the Catholic Church. But God understands – He knows how we work better than we do – and He knows if we break these commandments, we could do ourselves deadly harm.

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When someone who isn’t your father gives a command

So, everybody recognizes that it’s appropriate when your father tells you not to do something. Your father knows you, he understands you, and it’s his job to take responsibility for you. But do you remember what it was like when some other adult tried to boss you around? When some other adult, someone who didn’t have any explicit authority over you, told you to do something or to stop doing something?

It always felt kind of like a violation, didn’t it? Like who were they? What business was it of theirs? You always wanted to say, “Hey, you’re not my dad. You don’t get to tell me what to do.”

If we don’t see God as our Father, then we will see His commandments as violations, as outrages. We will say, “You don’t get to tell me what to do.”

That’s what the secular world has said to God. “You’re not my Father, and you don’t get to tell me what to do.” So look around. How has that attitude worked out for us? Because when I look around, I see people ignoring God’s law, and they’re everywhere, and they’re destroying themselves.

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Why Obey God’s Law?

So why should Adam and Eve obey God’s law? Why should any of us? For two reasons: One, because He’s Our Father, He knows us better than He knows ourselves, and He’s made this command to help us avoid destroying ourselves. So that’s the first reason you obey God’s commandment. For your own good.

But the second reason is that when we obey God, it shows us that we trust Him, that we accept Him as Our Father. Every relationship, for it to work, has to go both ways – including the relationship between a parent and child. When you obey the Lord – through the truths He reveals through His Scriptures and the Church – even when you don’t understand, you’re saying that you want to be in this relationship, and you want to do your part.

And Our Loving Father really appreciates that.