You don't have to choose between rules and relationships
Exodus 20:1-3
[1] And God spoke all these words, saying, [2] “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. [3] You shall have no other gods before me.”
God gets to make all the rules (He created us)
- "We were created by Him, for Him." Colossians 1
God made the rules for our good (He loves us)
1 Corinthians 13:1-3; 13
“[1] If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. [2] And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. [3] If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. [13] So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
God wants relationship, not rule followers (He redeemed us)
Exodus 20:2-3
[2] “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. [3] You shall have no other gods before me.”