Chess Rules

A chess craze is sweeping the country in the wake of the Netflix hit Queen’s Gambit about a fictional grand master. It has affected me too, and I have invested in some new chess pieces that I might better brush up my game. I even went to the trouble of looking up the rules. Most know that a game ends in a draw if there is stalemate- no piece can legally move. In addition to this, however, a game is a draw if a pawn is not moved for fifty consecutive turns; if a position is repeated three times and a player claims the repetition and if no piece is captured. Very sensible rules, I dare say, but ones hitherto unknown to me.

It behoves all players to fully acquaint themselves with the rules of a game, but one may play the game in relative ignorance. Yet ignorance of a rule does not negate its power nor existence. Indeed, they actually enhance the game, imposing constraints on the stronger as well as weaker players. Many today are utterly ignorant of God's rules and laws. Ignoring them neither negates their legitimacy nor improves our lives. 

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them. Romans 1:28-32 (NJKV)