Introduction
This lesson in our series continues to
emphasize God’s intent for His entire Word to be
applied in the lives of those who follow our Lord Jesus.
We’re focusing here on God’s moral and ethical law
as it applies to all who are called by Him to represent His
Name and His redemption message.
As we’ve written earlier, walking in
the steps of our Lord Jesus in obedient trust is pleasing to our
Father but by no means earns our redemption. We are not “under”
the law as a means of justification. Christ alone is our
Justifier before our Father! But we are called by Lord Jesus
to live righteously through His Spirit out of love for God and love for one another.
If you go through the Sermon on the Mount
(Matthew chapters 5-7) you see that Jesus uses the Hebrew Bible as His
reference point. He then goes on to focus on our heart motive
in our interaction with each other. Never does He call for His
disciples to disregard the Law of His Father. Rather, our
“good works” as we obey His commands bring praise
to our Father (Matthew 5:16-19).
Beginning with the Hebrew Bible and on
into the Newer Testament, there is no doubt that our God
requires each of us to own our responsibility for our sins.
That underlying ownership of our sinful depravity is key to our
repentance: our response to the Spirit’s call to turn away from that
ugliness and turn toward the wonderful forgiveness and covenant union in
our Lord Jesus!
Yet for many Christians today who have
heard only that they need to “invite Jesus into their
heart”, the whole issue of sin is a mystery. Let’s
examine sin from God’s
perspective. What does He consider to be
sin? The answer comes as we look to His entire Word as a continuum of His revelation.
Sadly, much of western Christendom is
illiterate when it comes to the Older Testament. Yet His
character and His ways are set forth there for His Son’s
called-out ones to grasp the foundational truth upon which our
Lord Jesus built His teaching.
Consider this: If God’s moral and
ethical laws in the Older Testament are disregarded or even
negated by Christians today, then a large portion of what our
Lord Jesus calls “sin” is meaningless. The
Christian life will look no different than that of a
“good” non-Christian.
In much of contemporary Christi-anity,
anyone who cites the Older Testament as the “Word of
God” for application is branded “legalistic”,
as though the commands Jesus taught and expanded upon had
somehow emanated from a vacuum. Yet out of our Father’s
wonderful grace He made known to both Israel and to those who
love His Son the Abrahamic covenant in which obedient trust was His relational
parameter (see Genesis 22:12; Romans 4:16).
The term “legalism” is often
referred to in many segments of western Christ-ianity as
“obedience to God’s laws” as if His law is
abolished as a way of life for followers of Jesus. Yet Paul
himself called God’s law (which includes all His teaching
throughout the Hebrew Scripture) “holy, just and
good” (Romans 7:12). So why is there this perceived
disparity?
Perhaps this rendering of
“legalism” from David Stern’s Jewish New Testament Commentary will help clarify:
Legalism is the perversion of God’s
commands into a set of rules which can presumably be obeyed without having faith, without having trust in God, without having love for God or for man, and without being
empowered by the Holy Spirit.
But God never intended that His good and
holy ways be followed apart from a relationship grounded in loving trust in Him!
The Israelites couldn’t do it, and neither can we, as
Paul forcefully notes in his letter to the Romans! Biblical
love is responsive—it takes action. That’s the sense of the
love commanded in Deuter-onomy 6:5 and emphasized by our Lord
Jesus (Matthew 22:37)—obedience that’s grounded in love for God.
Many translations of the Bible
misinterpret Paul’s letter to the Galatians to make it
seem as if any obedience to the laws of God is wrong. However,
Paul’s intent was to expose and warn against the Judaizers. Their
goal was a form of self-justification to convince others to keep the Law through
circumcision as evidence of conversion.
But you can’t earn favor with God by
scrambling to obey His good and righteous ways in your own
strength! Self-justification is legalistic perversion—attempting to gain salvation through keeping
God’s Law apart from the sacrifice of Christ and regeneration
through His Spirit. Legalistic perversion nullifies the need
for Jesus as the Sacrificial Substitute for the death we all
deserve.
How tragic it would have been for the
early Church if they had become chained to the bondage of
legalistic perversion of God’s commands as the
unbelieving Jews had! How disastrous it would have been if the
early followers of Jesus evaluated their relationship with Him
based on behavioral practices of religious ritual and form
rather than on a loving trust that responded with grateful
obedience.
[For more on the topic of legalistic
perversion, see Lifebyte 44. The Grace of Our God’s Law.]
The moral and ethical laws in the Older
Testament aren’t negated for a follower of Jesus. The way
of life which our Father intended to bring blessing isn’t
legalistic, but righteous. Lord Jesus has made us righteous by bearing our sin burden for us.
AND, He has empowered us by His Spirit to progress on our lifelong
journey in Him with ever-increasing transformation into His
character, thoughts and actions (2 Corinthians 3:18).
It’s because of our love for our Lord
that we seek to know what He considers sin, so that we might
turn from it and fill in that rut with His ways. This leads us
back to our initial theme, that the parameters of sin—that which
grieves God and violates His ways—are first introduced in
the Older Testament.
In this Teaching E-mail we list a few of
the laws of God found in the Hebrew Scriptures. Where
appropriate, we cite where in the Newer Testament they’ve
been apperceived from the Older Testa-ment and reinforced.
Some of these commands are straightforward;
the situation they address is as pertinent today as when it was
first penned. For example, God’s requirement for parents to teach and
role model obedience to His good and righteous ways (Ephesians
6:1-4) apperceives the generational responsibilities of the
Israelites to pass along His commands to their children and
grandchildren (Deuteronomy 6:6-9).
In other instances, our King’s
people must extrapolate a principle that we can then apply to
similar circumstances. Discerning and applying the principle behind
God’s Law is necessary. Because of technological
advancements, many situations today didn’t exist when God
first detailed His Law. For example, the principle to set no
evil thing before our eyes (Psalms 101:3) must be applied to
anything in the media that would offend Jesus!
The specific ways in which we who follow
Jesus apply His commands are called halakhahs. Our Lord Jesus gave His people authority to
apply God’s good and righteous ways (Matthew 28:18-20). He
also gave us His empowering Spirit to walk in His steps in
ever-increasing measure (2 Peter 1:3-8).
[For more on applying God’s
commands, see our book Christian
Halakhahs—Loving Jesus Through the Way You Apply His
Word, a
free download].
1. Obedience As An Expression of Love
The “royal law” of the Older
Testa-ment is repeated by James because it summarizes how to
walk in God’s good and upright ways: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18; James 2:8). As someone once
said, all the rest is commentary!
Parents are called to an intensity of loving purpose to
teach their children the commandments of God. Our Father never
calls for other people to impress His ways on your children; this is
the responsibility of parents in their daily interaction with them!
Grandparents as well are part of the intergenerational passing
along of God’s commands and ways (see Deuteronomy 6:1-4).
And undergirding all of this instruction in righteousness is
the command to love the Lord our
God with everything that’s in
us (v. 5).
These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your
children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along
the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols
on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write
them on the doorframes of your
houses and on your gates (Deuteronomy
6:6-9).
Impressing God’s commands onto your
children takes more than a brief prayer at mealtime! Rather
than watching TV or surfing the internet, your times of sitting
at home and walking along the road can be intentional as you
share how each day’s encounters and circumstances have
been God’s way for you to apply His Word. Applying His Word
means knowing it, so you are called
upon by God to daily explore His Word so you’ll have His
truth to draw upon within your own spirit!
Our loving Father’s commands are
“symbols on our hands” so that everything we do will be
measured by His ways. And binding them on our foreheads means
that every thought is evaluated by the way He has shown to be
good and pleasing to Him.
Be sure that your home is a sanctuary of
peace for your family. Reviewing and applying His ways within
the refuge of your home’s “doorposts” will
help your children discover the Source to personal and interrelational harmony.
The “gates” of your house need
the protection of His commands, teachings and ways so that all
who enter and leave have had an opportunity to be reminded that He
is loved and served in this family.
The Newer Testament looks specifically to fathers to fulfill
this vital command, although mothers certainly aren’t
ex-cluded. Your attitude as you fulfill this command of our
Lord is crucial. Talking at your children is a needless source of
irritation for them. They don’t need you to lecture them,
but rather to engage them in discussing His Word and helping them apply it to their
lives.
Fathers, do
not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the
training and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4; see also Malachi 4:5,6).
The training and instruction referred to
by Paul is ongoing and interactive—a Hebraic way of discussion in which
questions are asked and responses given that encourage even
more exchanges. God’s Word is living and active, sharp
enough to penetrate heart motives and attitudes (Hebrews 4:12).
You don’t want your children slavishly following a set of
rules; rather, their hearts need to be aligned with God so that
they’ll appreciate His gracious love and holiness and want to overcome
sin’s pull.
• If you’re a parent, how
intentional are you in personally teaching your children to
obey God’s Law and please Him? How well did your parents
carry out God’s command to teach you? How does their way
of training you affect you today?
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• What changes do you need to make in
your approach to impressing as with a stamp in clay God’s
commands, ways and teaching on your children and grandchildren?
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• What changes need to be made in
your home so that your children will learn to lovingly obey
God’s Word in all that they think and do, and not just
while you’re observing them? Is pleasing God more
important to them than pleasing themselves?
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2. Measures of Justice
Because He is a God of justice, His Word
flows with commands that relate to applying
honesty to our everyday lives. God
called for honest business practices among His people. As He
proclaimed, “Do not use
dishonest standards when measuring length, weight or quantity.
Use honest scales and honest weights, an honest ephah and an honest hin. I am the
LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt” (Leviticus 19:35,36).
God brought them out of darkness to set them apart as a
kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:6). How they lived reflected
to the nations around them the nature of the God they claimed
to serve.
God’s reputation is at stake when we
claim to be His own, abiding in His Spirit. Whether you slack
off at work, cut corners in production, or slip the extra money
from a careless cashier into your purse, His reputation is on
the line by your choices. It also matters to our Lord how we
treat one another, whether that othe person is His follower or
not. If the Israelites varied their weights and measures
according to the customer, they were dealing unjustly. (This
was a common practice, one that God detested (Deuteronomy 25:
16).)
Such dishonesty violated His foundational
command to love your neighbor as
yourself (Leviticus 19:18), for
again the verse concludes with, “I
am the LORD.” If He is to be
our Lord, then He has the right to declare the principles that
guide and direct our relational interaction. Since He is the
one Who is making the commands, then we who are His people are
called upon to uphold His Lordship in our lives and walk in His
Spirit’s power in love-grounded obedient trust.
The measure of
our love for one another can be
evaluated by how justly we treat each other. For instance, if
we’re quick to notice flaws in a brother or sister,
we’ve missed our own need for heart examination. Both
humility and love undergird the just desire to help someone in
need. As Lord Jesus put it, “First take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Luke 6:42).
The standards we use to evaluate other
people’s lives are the ones God will measure us by
(Matthew 7:1,2). Those who demand a way of life they themselves
are unwilling or unable to follow are called
“Hypocrite!”— one who counterfeits reality by
pretending to be something that they’re not.
Our response to others is in direct
proportion to our love for them. That’s why our Lord
Jesus can command us this summation of all of God’s
teaching and prophetic messages:
Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for
this is the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 7:12).
This command is justice encapsulated. Our
Lord Jesus became man to lead justice to victory (Matthew 12:
20). There is no peace without justice, and the love that our
Lord works in and through us by His Spirit does not flourish
where there is no peace.
• Are you a just person? Do you treat
others as you want to be treated? In what ways are you showing
“unjust measures” of partiality among those around
you?
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3. Going the Second Mile of Love
Many of the agrarian themes of the Hebrew
Scriptures may seem irrelevant to urban Americans. Yet the
principles of God’s commands are timeless. No matter what
the circumstance may be, if your brother is in need and you can
help — do it!
If you see your brother’s ox or
sheep straying, do not ignore it but be sure to take
it back to him. If the brother does
not live near you or if you do not know who he is, take it home with you and keep it until he comes looking for it. Then give it back to him. Do the same if you find your brother’s donkey or his cloak
or anything he loses. Do not ignore it. If you see your
brother’s donkey or his ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it. Help him get it to
its feet (Deuteronomy 22:1-4).
American society is one of convenience. If
it’s along your way and you have time, you’ll
extend kindness. Willingness to be inconvenienced, however, is a measure of the Spirit’s
love at work in you. That motivation translated into
Jesus’ command to carry a soldier’s pack two miles (Matthew 5:
41) — “the second mile of love.”
During the first century Roman occupation
of Israel, a soldier could demand that you carry his heavy pack
the equivalent of one mile. That was your duty. However, Lord
Jesus commanded His disciples to go beyond the call of duty so
that His Father in heaven might be praised for their good work
(Matthew 5:16).
Just think of the conversation be-tween
the soldier and the follower of Jesus during that volunteered
second mile. What an opportunity to sow seeds of witness about
Jesus during this “inconvenient” service! When you
go above and beyond what’s expected, people want to know why. Be prepared to
tell them.
With today’s media resources, you
can go the extra mile by sending out feelers to reunite lost
items and their owners. Who knows where stopping to help
someone with a need may lead! Our son was helped with a flat
tire by a stranger who mentioned that he and his wife managed
an apartment complex. As God would have it, our son and his
family were earnestly seeking a place to live. Follow-up led
them to that complex!
In the parable of the Samaritan who showed
such responsive love to one whom most of his people would have
despised, Jesus takes extra-mile living to a new level. Our
Lord related this parable as a practical example of the
greatest commandment: “‘Love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your
neighbor as yourself’” (Luke
10:27). Wholehearted love for God ties in with sacrificial love
for another human being.
Both the priest and the Levite passing by
violated God’s command to help someone in need. In fact,
the beaten man was a brother, a fellow Jew! They ignored him
and went out of their way to avoid contact. The Samaritan,
however, willingly took upon himself the burden of the robbed
man. He went the second mile to meet his every need. Jesus uses
this parable to show the extent our love must go to be revealed
by compassionate actions. (See Luke 10:29-36.)
• Are you a first-mile-only Christian?
Do you do only that which is convenient for you? How available
are you in your heart to do whatever
is necessary to help others?
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• Describe a recent situation in
which your “inconvenience level” was tested. How
did you feel about what you were asked to do? Can you honestly
say you were motivated by love as God’s ambassador?
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4. Treatment of aliens
Think about this: God’s Word always
reveals His character. He commanded His chosen ones to love the aliens
in their midst, those who weren’t ethnically the same but
“outsiders”. They were to treat them with respect
and dignity as one of their own. His reputation among His
people was at stake.
When an alien lives
with you in your land, do not mistreat him.
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
the LORD your God (Leviticus 19:
33,34).
God is particularly concerned with those
who have left the comfort zone of familiar surroundings to live
among a new people. What a wonderful opportunity for us who are
His beloved bondservants to introduce them by deed and by word
to the Word of Life!
The justice of God extends to the
“foreigner” even before it reaches the fatherless
or the widowed!
Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice,
or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge... Cursed is the man
who withholds justice from the alien, the fatherless or the widow (Deuteronomy 27:17,19).
Like the Samaritan to whom the Jewish man
was an “alien”, our God judges us by how we respond
to people who are different than ourselves. Since He is impartial, He
calls for us as His children and His representatives to show no
partiality regardless of background, gender, or position
(Leviticus 19:15; Luke 20:21; Romans 12:16; James 3:17; 1
Timothy 5:21).
We were blessed to serve international
students at a nearby university by finding host families who
could invite them to their home as friends. It was such a
delight to spend meaningful time with our friends from other
lands and to spark their interest in the Gospel by our love for
them!
Your loving outreach can have the effect
our Father intends when a person from a far-off land comes to
our shores as either a follower of Jesus or or one whom
you’re privileged to lead to Him. For the sake of His
great Name, our Lord may use the testimony of a visitor to
penetrate their own culture as they call, write e-mail or
return to visit their countrymen.
The media is filled with reports about
illegal aliens and how to be more effective in identifying them
and keeping them out of the US. Very often, however, these are
the only people who are willing to do the poorly paid,
backbreaking labor of picking crops in all kinds of weather,
living in often deplorable housing so that we can enjoy the
fruits and vegetables of their labor. May the prayer of Solomon
find fulfillment in our day:
[T]hen hear from heaven Your dwelling
place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You,
that all peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You (2 Chronicles 6:33).
• Do you show partiality or disdain
people different than yourself? When you hear the phrase
“illegal alien”, do you think that person is
intruding on your rights and privileges? Or is he someone our
Lord has sent you to help?
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• Have you ever felt like an
“alien” yourself? Describe a situation in which you
were the “odd person out”. Did someone from the
prevailing group come to your aid?
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Conclusion
We’ve included this sampling of
God’s good and righteous Law for you to discuss with your
family and faith family. In our next Teaching E-mail
we’ll share a few more.We encourage you to go through the
entire Bible to develop personal and family halakhahs of application.
Remember, this won’t justify you
before Him nor earn approval points. Rather, live with love as
your motivator—love for God and love for others. Then, as
you live in a way that pleases Him, that love will be seen in
choices that stand out from the world’s way of darkness
(Ephesians 5:8-10).
