One of my favorite recent movies is NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN by the Coen Brothers — it is a great movie in terms of direction, etc. but it is extremely violent in content.
But this blog is not about the quality of the movie’s direction and why it deserved to be BEST PICTURE that year but, instead, one of the lines spoken by hitman Anton as he is about to kill Carson Wells (a bounty hunter): “Let me ask you something; if the rule you followed brought you to this, ‘of what use was the rule?’”
What a great line and one that could be used by Christians in their evangelistic labors as we seek to help people acquire both soteriological (saving wisdom) and hermeneutical (how to make sense of life) wisdom. Anton’s question is a modern paraphrase of something Jesus taught in His sermon on the mount when He said:
“Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who find it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
Everyone lives by a RULE — a way of life — yet there are only two rules, two paths, two ways, for a human being to walk — one path, one way embraces the abundant life and leads to a very good place and, the other path, is a perishing way of life that leads to a very bad place — so, I ask you, “IF THE RULE YOU FOLLOWED BROUGHT YOU TO THIS, OF WHAT USE WAS THE RULE?”