What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
Whatsoever God commands is to be observed and done, with nothing added to His word and nothing taken away from it. In its setting the command forbids copying the nations in the way they worshiped their gods. With the statutes and judgments it calls for keeping God's distinct commands instead of adopting pagan practices. Faithful obedience to God's law under this command was for the people's good and bound them to His purpose.
God's instructions for worship are binding, to be followed without adding human requirements or removing what God has commanded. A human custom or ceremony not commanded in Scripture does not become acceptable merely because Scripture does not forbid it, and no one is free to supplement God's authority with human requirements. Adding such human requirements to God's authority helped begin the great apostasy. That apostasy first required what God had not commanded — as those who held it in the form taught in put it, what He had not forbidden — and later forbade what He had explicitly commanded. The English reformers acted on this principle in rejecting church customs and ceremonies not commanded in Scripture.
The warning extends to religious pictures that pervert sacred truth by distorting what they represent. A book is better without illustrations that so distort what they represent.
Whatsoever God commands is to be observed and done, with nothing added to His word and nothing taken away from it. In its setting the command forbids copying the nations in the way they worshiped their gods. With the statutes and judgments it calls for keeping God's distinct commands instead of adopting pagan practices. Faithful obedience to God's law under this command was for the people's good and bound them to His purpose.
God's instructions for worship are binding, to be followed without adding human requirements or removing what God has commanded. A human custom or ceremony not commanded in Scripture does not become acceptable merely because Scripture does not forbid it, and no one is free to supplement God's authority with human requirements. Adding such human requirements to God's authority helped begin the great apostasy. That apostasy first required what God had not commanded — as those who held it in the form taught in put it, what He had not forbidden — and later forbade what He had explicitly commanded. The English reformers acted on this principle in rejecting church customs and ceremonies not commanded in Scripture.
The warning extends to religious pictures that pervert sacred truth by distorting what they represent. A book is better without illustrations that so distort what they represent.