New Commands?

“A new command I give you: Love one another.
As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
(John 13:34)

12 / 06 / 08
(Comments in parentheses and emphasis are mine – NIV used)

FIRST THOUGHTS:

• I have always wondered why so many people think that Yahshua (Jesus) gave a new commandment to us that we must “love” … as if it had not existed prior to him. I have even been told that we no longer need to follow any of the Old Testament Laws today, but only need to follow Jesus’ command to love one another. Where did they get that, I wonder?
• Okay, okay … many of you may be thinking, “Kyle, just look at the verse you chose to open with”. Ohhhhhh … that is where they get it from … it is because Yahshua (Jesus) said it is a new command. But I thought that God commanded even in the Old Testament for us to love each other.…even before the Son of God appeared to us!

- “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am YHWH.” (Leviticus 19:18)
- “The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am YHWH your God. “ (Leviticus 19:34)
- “The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am YHWH your God.” (Deuteronomy 10:19)

• I don’t want to be disrespectful, but what is Yahshua (Jesus) talking about? How can this be a new commandment? Did He forget that He already commanded us to love each other back in our forefather’s time in the desert?
• HINT: Look at the last two verses regarding WHO they were commanded to love. The natural born Israelites were commanded to love the “Alien” that was living among them and to treat them as an equal. What was new when Yahshua was talking was that we Gentile believers were no longer “aliens” living among them, but equal to the natural born Hebrew believers. THAT is what Yahshua has accomplished! That was one of His purposes!

- Paul explains this to the Ephesians (non-Hebrews) in Ephesians 2:19 … “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household.” Recall from above that they were told to love the aliens among them. So, the notion of a Gentile believer being equal among them is NEW.
- “For He Himself is our peace, who made the two (Hebrew and Gentile) one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility (there were actual walls in the Temple built to keep the Gentiles separated), by abolishing in His flesh the law with its commandments and regulations (These are the dogma laws, or man-made laws that made it hard for not only the Gentiles to come near to God, but the common Hebrew, as well). His purpose was to create in Himself ONE new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility.” (Ephesians 2:14-16) Did you catch that? “HIS PURPOSE” was to create in Himself ONE man out of the two (Jew and Gentile). THAT is the part that was new, and therefore we both are told … LOVE one another.
- “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” (1 Corinthians 12:12-13) (The body is Israel … made up of many parts of which our Messiah is the head!)
- “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all ONE in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, THEN you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:28-29)
- “For there is NO difference between Jew and Gentile – the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him.” (Romans 10:12)
- Yet to ALL who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God – children born NOT of natural descent, NOR of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (John 1:11-13)

THE ONLY THING THAT IS NEW IS “WHO OUR BROTHERS ARE”:

• Now, when we read passages about “loving your brother” we must not think about it being a new command, but that our thought of “who” our brother is to include the Hebrew believers, as well as the Hebrew believer must include us, Gentile believers as their thought of family. Together, we make up Israel.
• “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2) I am to carry not only the Gentile believer’s burden, but the Hebrew believer’s, as well. You know what? We should probably STOP referring to each other according to our physical identification, as well … such as being a Jew, Greek, or Italian believer. Once someone is part of the family of Israel, there is no longer a PHYSICAL identification … but a Spiritual one. I am no longer a Gentile and a Hebrew is no longer a Hebrew. These things are of the world and not of God. For it is written about the children of God:

- “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24)
- “I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” (1 Corinthians 15:50)

VERSES RELATED TO THOUGHT:

• “This is my command: Love each other.” (John 15:17) NOW we know that this is not replacing God’s Laws (as many think), but it is revealing that He (Yahshua / Jesus) commands both Jews and Gentiles within Israel to love each other as brothers (It is like a twin brother being taken at birth by mistake and being raised by someone else for 20 years. Then, one day, they meet and realize that they have been brothers all along. Now the brother who had been raised by their true parents has to share them with his new-found brother … who had been a brother all along.)
• “This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.” (1 John 3:10) Notice that we are to obey God’s Laws (do what is right … some translations say “do righteousness”) AND love our brothers.
• “If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” (1 John 4:20-21) Now that it is clear what our Savior actually is speaking of, we know that this is NOT eliminating the Laws as given through Moses, but that He is bringing the Jew and Gentile together … and then commands them to love one another.
• “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.” (Romans 13:8) What Law? Ohhhhhh … the law that Jews and Gentiles must love each other as brothers!
• John seems to hint that it really is not new, but has sort of been hidden and spoken of before. They (The Hebrews) KNEW that they were to love the aliens that were ALWAYS welcomed into Israel. But they always thought that being an “Israelite” was their right alone (recall the twin brother example. The one brother thought that he alone was an heir.). So John is clear in 1 John 2:7-9 … it is actually not so new. Those living at the time of Yahshua (Jesus) simply had never heard it: “Dear friends, I am NOT writing you a new command but an OLD one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.”
• “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” (Ephesians 4:2)
• “Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.” (1 Thessalonians 4:9)

LAST THOUGHTS:

• So … who are our brothers? Anyone who believes in Yahshua (Jesus) as their Savior.
• Is the command to love each other replacing obedience to God’s Laws as given through Moses? Of course not.
• We are told that there is no Jew, Gentile, slave, free, male, or female within Israel. It also makes sense that the priests, who are the brothers of the High Priest, Yahshua (Jesus), are from every tribe, language, peoples and nations. These are all who hold firm to the testimony of Yahshua (Jesus) and obey the Law and teach it.

WHAT MIGHT THIS LOVE LOOK LIKE:

• Those of us who are attempting to obey God’s Laws as He gave them to His children MUST love those who have not come to that point in their walk with Him. We must show the same mercy that we received for so many years from the Lord.
• Those of us who are attempting to obey God’s Laws as He gave them to His children MUST love those who do the same, yet interpret and live out the commands differently from us, others, or the majority. (NOTE: We are all, most likely, incorrect in some points. Good thing we are not saved by our obedience!). Division comes when we do not love each other as He commanded and accuse each other for doing things differently.
• Yes … we must love one another … or it all means nothing.

Which Law?

It is often said that,
“The only law we have to obey today is Christ’s law.”

10 / 20 / 07
(NIV used)

FIRST THOUGHTS:

• Some questions we must ponder:
- Are we to obey the Son over the Father?
- If the Father gave us a command and then someone who said that he is His son, gave us a contradicting command … wouldn’t that son be acting in rebellion to His Father?
- Our Savior NEVER put Himself above or over the Father. Why then do so many today put the Son over the Father, as if the Son overrules the Father?

• When we say that we no longer have to obey God the Father’s Laws (as given through His servant Moses) because His Son gave us a new law, isn’t that what we are doing … putting the Son over the Father? This is a false doctrine. So let us examine what “Christ’s law” truly is.
• Our faith in the atoning sacrifice of the blood of the Son is what saves us. The Father sent His Son out of love for us. The Son willingly accepted the task at hand out of the same love. Let us NOT use the blood of the Son of God as an excuse to sin and disobey the Father. The Son obeyed His Father and IF we are truly disciples of the Son, we MUST do the same: “Whoever claims to live in Him MUST walk as Jesus did.” … 1 John 2:6!
• How can we truly say that Jesus taught a new command that is a contrary to the teaching of His Father’s Laws? “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” (John 5:19) Let us also not forget that it is the Father, not the Son, who is going to reward us for our obedience. “… Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:4) So the fact remains:
- The blood of the Son saves us.
- The Spirit of the Son sanctifies us (2 Thesalonians 2:13)… or in other words, helps us to obey the Father. It is the Spirit who is teaching us the Laws of the Father … THAT is sanctification. THAT is how HE (for it is HIS power within us) is taking our sins away (as He writes the Father’s Laws on our heart and we begin to obey).

• So what is the “Law of Christ”?

- Well, we can see that it is separate from His Father’s Laws (the Laws of Moses), for Paul plainly says that he is “… NOT free from God’s Law but am under Christ’s Law.” (1 Corinthians 9:21) So why are so many saying that they are free from the Law of Moses, when Paul says that he, himself, is not?
- We can also see that replacing His Father’s law is NOT what our Master taught, as well: “Do NOT think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have NOT come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will BY ANY MEANS disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:17-18) He says “do NOT” think that the Law is done away with … so why are many thinking that way? Is everything accomplished? His death and resurrection are, but how about His return? Is there still a heaven and earth? So, we see that eliminating the Law of Moses and the Prophets is NOT what Christ taught.

• So what is this “Christ’s Law” that we are under?

• Christ’s Law is NOT (and never will be) in opposition to His Father’s Laws!! If it were, then we would have no moral code to live by. This is the relativism that our worldly society teaches us. This is NOT Biblical. IF anything, Christ enhances the Laws and brings clarification to them (Showing us the ultimate example of HOW to live them out which is the definition of fulfilling them) God’s Word makes this clear: “Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard.” (1 John 2:7) The message we have heard? Friends, He was talking to those who had heard Moses and the Prophets! “Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in Him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.” (1 John 2:8-9) A new command to love your brother? Is this really a new command? No, wait, I mean yes, I mean … is it really new? Yes, to the people He was speaking to … it was. For the Gentiles coming in to the family of Israel through faith in HIM were NOW considered equal brothers with the Jews. To the Jews (the audience to whom He was speaking), THIS was new … but was it, I mean, it was … we find in the past, the Gentiles saved by faith were considered saved, but simply “aliens among them”.
• So, when we are told to “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2) we can see this being applied. Friends, God has always commanded us to carry each other’s burdens, but they, the Jews, were not doing so to those of “different nationalities”. We, the Gentiles are now their brothers … equals inside of Israel. By whose command? The Son’s!! For HE broke down those man-made walls of hostility (“For HE himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in His flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility.” – Ephesians 2:14-16). This is NOT talking about God’s Laws given through Moses being hostile! It was speaking of the dogma laws of man that kept the Gentiles and Jews separated; These man-made laws were “hostile” and NOT of God!

NOTE: Since the Jewish and the Gentile believers were now equal, They were being told to carry each other’s burdens and to love each other as brothers. To do so … they would be fulfilling Christ’s Law! If we say that by Christ “fulfilling” the Law of Moses, we no longer have to obey them … then if I carry someone’s burden (thus fulfilling the law of Christ), I don’t have to do that again, either. So we can plainly see that fulfilling something does NOT mean to eliminate it. We simply lived out that Law to the fullest meaning it was intended!! We must do it again, though, because of our faith!! Christ’s Law? That the Jewish and Gentile believers were now one man … a new man out of two separate people . We are to love each other and to carry each other’s burdens. Is this new? Not really, but even to us today … it is new, for we have been using it to disobey His Father. But is has always been there waiting for the right time to be revealed to those being saved.

• Just something to think about the next time we feel like saying, “We no longer have to obey God the Father’s Laws … for we now have Christ, His Son.” Is that what the Son would say?

The Law: Who is it For?

DEVOTION
11 / 25 / 05
(comments in parentheses and emphasis are mine)

FIRST THOUGHTS:
• What is the truth about the Laws of God?
• It is apparent that when our Savior came, that the Jews obeyed them to be saved.
• The church interprets God’s Word as if to say all, but a choice few, of the Laws no longer valid.
• I have even heard that the Law is mandatory for everyone, regardless of whether or not they are a child of God.
• So, is there still a Law? If so, who is it for?
• After careful reading and study, it seems to me that God’s Laws are only for the family of God (Oh, they are AVAILABLE for all men, just like salvation. But, just like salvation, only those who believe become part of His family, and therefore, receive the gift of His Laws!).
• Think about it … those who say that they are children of God show what this means by the way they live out their lives. Through our words and deeds we show the world who OUR God is! How did His Son reveal Him? Through obedience (love of God) and laying down His life (love of neighbor)!

WAS THE LAW GIVEN TO THE WORLD, OR JUST TO GOD’S CHILDREN? READ FOR YOURSELVES:

• “Do not eat anything you find already dead.” (Yes, this is a Law for God’s children. Obviously, not a hard one to obey, I might add. The verse continues, as if we are asking God, “But Lord, then what are we to do with this dead carcass?” To me, God’s answer is hilarious. Now we, God’s children, cannot eat it, but He says that …) “You may give it to an alien living in any of your towns, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. But YOU are a people holy to the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 14:21a)
• “He has revealed His word to Jacob, His laws and decrees to Israel. He has done this for NO OTHER nation; they (The other nations) do not know His laws. Praise the Lord.” (Psalm 147:19-20)
• (Even when it comes to lending to a brother in need, or loaning to a foreigner, it is the foreigner that we are not to hold to the same Law as a fellow citizen of God!) “You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your brother owes you.” (Deuteronomy 15:3)
• (Okay, our forefathers are about to enter a foreign land by dispossessing of it. God is revealing to His children that this foreign nation does things that He does not permit them to do. Why? Because God is holy, we, His children are to be holy and we are a separated people unto HIM!) “The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for YOU, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so.” (Deuteronomy 18:14) (I ask you, can we, now that the Messiah has come, break any of these laws, now? Of course not! But WE are to uphold them!!! (Romans 3:30 … “Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the Law.”) We cannot pick and chose which laws to obey just because of the traditions passed down through generations, even centuries, to us. Do not fear persecution of man, but of God who gave us this precious gift … His laws!)
• (Many Christians no longer believe the Laws given through Moses are for them, so the world is no longer envious of us! Let me ask you, how does your child show you that he understands what you told him to do? By DOING it correctly. THAT is showing that he understands!) “Observe them (the laws) carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations (those not part of the family), who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” … “And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?” (Deuteronomy 4:6 and
• (These laws of God, given to us, are actually a way to have a closer relationship with God, through His Son. They are even a possession that we can pass on, or give to our children. (They are better than any pearls or keep-sakes!)) “Moses charged us with a law, a POSSESSION for the assembly of Jacob.” (Deuteronomy 33:4) (Yes, we are that assembly. Along with all those who believed and lived by faith before us!!)
• (The law is not for the un-believers to obey! It is ours and is the very Law that the Spirit is writing on our hearts today (Hebrews 8:8-11). The Spirit does NOT write these precious laws on the hearts of someone who is NOT a child of God!) “He teaches your precepts to Jacob and your law to Israel.” (Deuteronomy 33:10a) (Again, we find God revealing later in Romans 9:6-8 WHO Israel really is … those who believe and live by faith.)
• (Finally, remember when Paul was sent to the Gentiles? The Gentiles did NOT have the Law, since it was never given to them! Paul makes it clear, as he witness to the un-believers, that he was NOT free from God’s law, but by witnessing to them, he was actually adhering to the law of Christ!) “To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am NOT free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law (Let us NOT forget, that it was the Gentiles obedience to the Law, in fact, that proved that the Spirit of God was in them too! “For it is not those who hear the Law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the Law who will be declared righteous.” (Romans 2:13). We are NOT justified by obeying the Law!! But the obedience to the Law shows that we have been justified (it is revealing the sanctifying work of the Spirit within us).

LAST THOUGHTS:
• I humbly introduce to those who want a closer relationship with their Lord, Jesus Christ, to allow His Spirit to have access to their hearts to write His law. Do not fear man’s rebuke (most comes from inside the church), but fear God. He gave us the right food to eat, the right Sabbath to obey, the correct festivals to celebrate (they ALL of which point to the work of His Son!!). His Laws even show us how to treat our neighbors as ourselves; How to give until we have nothing more to give, but need to receive back; How to lay down our life for another human being; How to pray for our enemies (not curse them) … By obeying God’s eternal Law, we teach our children who God is … unchanging and trustworthy!! Yes, OUR God is the same today as He was yesterday!!
• So how do you show God that you understand Him and love Him? (“THIS is love for God: to obey His commands. And His commands are NOT burdensome…” (1 John 5:3)
• So let us enjoy the gift God gives freely to His children, and sing as King David did in Psalm119:33 and 97 … “Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart.” and “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.” (Remember, it is Christ who is the Word lived out … perfectly! In turn, by rejecting the Law … are they not rejecting who Christ is?)