At the Heart of Morality is Group Identity

A friend said, "God isn't a policeman, a judge.
Morality and rule-keeping isn't where it's at, with Him."
The reply I would give him now is that  
any leader of a group,or society itself,
Wants social cohesion, strong group identity.
Morality is the glue or sinews that hold people together.
Stealing makes a statement, "You are not me, you don't count."
So to not steal is like saying, You are me, we are one.
Ditto with lying, punching, adultery, killing.
To abstain from those things is like saying,
You are me, we are one.
 
So God is interested in morality,
Despite my friend's view to the contrary.
For Jesus emphasized oneness,
His prayer to the Father was,  
"As You are in Me and I am in You,
May they also be ONE in Us.
That the world may believe that  
You have sent Me"(John 17.21).
 
What is the point of being "one," "whole" ?
A collective sense of power, empowerment.
We gain a sense of pleasure from power.
Ask a crack addict. That's what he'll tell you.
Good pleasure obviates the socalled need for the baser sort.
The purpose, then, of the power I'm talking about
(that comes from oneness which comes from morality)
Is to escape the sin tendency, the fallen nature  --
To restore part of our "original innocence,"  
To regain the "childhood" mood of the Edenic Garden,
The youthful idealism of long, long ago.