While Facebook friends argue back and forth about things like the different laws the Jews serve and how Christians may or may not have to follow them, it becomes confusing, doesn’t it? Old Testament following Christians have a difficult road to walk and it weakens their relationship with Christ.
Why make your Christian journey so tough? The Lord Jesus Christ took His time to teach the Disciples and all of us through His Word that is captured in His Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5:1–7:29; Luke 6:20–49; 11:33–36; 12:22–34).
Every standard Christ teaches in His Sermon on the Mount are the things of behavior you should be emulating to look like and walk like Christ. Every standard of His is our rules of behavior as Christians. My hopes are that you are teaching young Christians these standards every day. Your Lord Jesus Christ expects Christian leaders to be displaying these standards of behavior in their own walk with Him and teaching them to those that are learning to be a Christian.
Now here is a very deep mystery that hardly any Christians realize completely. If you follow all the standards recorded in the New Testament, you will be following God’s law perfectly! We do not follow the law specifically. We follow the ways of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ teaches us His standards, God’s standards, and His disciples pick up establishing and teaching standards where He left off when He left this earth. The Holy Spirit flows through each Christian so they can follow the standards of Christ.
So instead of focusing on the law, let us focus upon the standards of Christ, and try to meet each of them. We don’t have time or the spirit to follow Old Testament law. Christ’s standards reflect God’s law in a different light, one that ultimately loves others as themselves.
That is why I said it was confusing to me why Facebook friends argue among themselves whether to follow the Old Testament laws. It is of no importance to focus on the singular laws without the teaching of God placed upon them. That would be going backwards in our developed Christian faith.
The Commandments, statutes and ordinance of the LORD God given to the Jewish people were the beginning of forming a relationship with humans. There were no teachings, per se, given to them. The law was absolute and unforgiving. Either you obeyed all the laws (often confused by the Pharisees and the rabbis) and adhered to all the LORD God’s rules, or you were in disobedience to Him.
When the Lord Jesus Christ came, he taught the meaning of those laws of the Old Testament given by the LORD God to mankind. No longer a black/white, obey/disobey stringent representation of the laws, they became open to the teachings of Christ. Remember this teaching:
Matthew 5:27–28 (KJV 1900)
27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: 28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
We learn from Jesus that the Law said don’t commit adultery; but He added a new teaching, that adultery was more than just an affair with a married person. The Lord taught that with His coming to earth, He will teach the real meaning of the law, not just the absolutes. The real meaning of the law that the LORD God made was if you look lustfully upon a woman, you commit adultery with your heart! The standards have changed! Before it was the absolute law; now it became the fulfilled law with a need to fully understand not only the rule but also the reason, ways, and the consequences of breaking that law.
Have you ever heard that it is impossible for Jews to keep the Laws of the LORD God, thus they have no way to be obedient to Him? And that as Christians, we have it easy, because we have the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive all our sins and keep us in obedience to God?
It seems to me that sentiment is a bit backwards. The standards of the Lord Jesus Christ do not only support the Laws of the LORD God but are also more detailed and consider the things going on in the heart also. Are Christians supposed to obey the Laws of the LORD God spoken in the Old Testament? Followers of Jesus Christ not only obey the Laws spoken in the Old Testament, but they also must obey Christ’s standards of the heart also.
It is a narrower road we walk with Christ, not a wider one that the Jews walk upon.
Christians that don’t understand that they should focus on Christ’s teachings, rather than on the Old Testament laws, never reach the higher standards that the Lord Jesus Christ has set for His followers. And if a Christian does not reach those standards, then that Christian is not walking the way of Christ. Period.
