What About the Ten Commandments and Jewish Festivals and Kosher Eating Laws? - Chapter 45

By Dennis Edwards

All Bible verses are from the King James Bible, although I have changed some of the old English. Any similarity to any modern version is only by coincidence. Bible verses other than the King James have been foot-noted properly.

Copyright @ Dennis M. Edwards (photos used from Google images for educational purposes only)[To go to the first chapters click on link]

Chapter 45

What About the Ten Commandments and Jewish Festivals and Kosher Eating Laws?

Some people like a religion of rules and regulation and church services etc. But the law of Christ[1] is above all that and says we should be motivated by love in all we do. We are no longer under a Don’t Do religion, but a Do religion: go sell all you have and give to the poor,[2] go into all the world and preach the gospel,[3] love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you,[4] heal the sick,[5] cast out devils, freely you have received freely give.[6]

But most people like to feel righteous so they would rather have a Don’t Do religion and then they can feel justified because they didn't break the Ten Commandments and didn't break the kosher laws and have kept the Sabbath. Let’s read from Isaiah.

Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.

Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God. [7]

Even though we as a nation have forsaken the ordinances of God in our hearts and minds, we still in our religious services make an appearance of approaching God.

Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and You see not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and You take no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours. [8]

We take pleasure in our apparent fasting, in our religious exercise and we wonder why God doesn’t seem to answer our prayers. We go to prayer groups and Bible studies and even stop watching TV, but still God doesn’t seem to respond.

Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord? [9]

I’ve visited some churches where they make a big exercise in “fasting” foods for a week in order to pray for a need for the church, or for direction. But the Lord goes on to explain what type of fast He’s really looking for.

Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou see the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? [10]

It seems the Lord is more interested in our helping others than in our abstaining from eating food. In other words, He is telling us we need to break open our hardened hearts and get involved with the poor, the needy, the oppressed and even our own family members who need our help. If we do so, He says,

Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward. [11]

If we do take care of those afflicted, God is promising to be a light unto us. He is promising health and that His presence itself will be our reward.

Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity and thy darkness be as the noon day: [12]

Did you hear that? If we draw out our soul to those in need, both physically and spiritually, He promises to enlighten our path.

And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. [13]

Wow, what promises.

If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. [14]

In other words, if we really put the Lord first and love Him with all our heart, our mind, and strength, He will bless us. He wants our “fasting” to in fact be service for the poor and down-trodden. If we do that, then He is going to be with us. There is something about helping the poor that God blesses. Rather than “approaching unto God” in our church services, He would have us out serving first those in need. Then He promises to hear our prayers and give His presence to us, which is a reward in itself. Self-righteous religious church service and rule-keeping, is not what God wants. Love is above all those other things.[15] That’s what Mother Teresa was all about: helping the poor. Maybe that’s why Apostle James says,

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. [16]

Each fellowship has their rules and regulations, but they must remember that most of those rules are ones that they have decided are important and therefore they follow them. The trouble comes in when they try to use God's Word to justify the rules they wish for their congregation to keep, and condemn others who don’t. We do not need more rules. We need more people getting out loving others into the Kingdom of God. If our rules and regulations are not motivating us to love others then what good are they, but to make us feel righteous before God. Yet our righteousness is nothing but stinking menstrual cloth in His eyes.[17]

The conflict between grace verses works has been a raging religious controversy since the time of Cain and Abel to the present.[18] Abel’s simple obedience pleased God and showed that obedience is what God wants, not sacrifice.[19] Cain wanted to show his righteousness by his own works. He was not humble enough to obey God and sacrifice the lamb God desired, symbolic of the Lamb of God that was to come in Christ. No, he wanted to do it his way, like Frank Sinatra’s song, I Did It My Way![20] Cain would offer a sacrifice of the works of his own hands.[21] 

Here's the problem: Abel an honest sinner was willing to obey God and depended on God's righteousness to save him. Cain thought he was righteous enough since he was hard working, much more so than his brother who did nothing but watch sheep all day. Thus we see the beginning of the battle royal between those who believe in God’s righteousness, that God alone can save them, and those who believe God needs some help from us and prefer to trust in their own righteousness to save them.

I would rather stand with Mary Magdalena[22], Rahab[23], Ruth,[24] Tamar,[25] David, Paul, and the prophets who stood by faith alone in God's righteousness to save them and keep them saved. My own righteousness fails me many times a day. If righteousness comes through our rule keeping, kosher laws and church attendance and services then Christ has died in vain. Jesus alone, He is all I need! That’s what Paul argued.

But the whole point is that the law of love is in fact more than the Ten Commandments. Instead of NOT lying and NOT killing and NOT stealing etc, which obviously you will not do if you are walking in love, it's about treating others how you would want to be treated in any given situation.[26] We now have a Proactive religion instead of a Don’t Do religion. That's why the Bible says that love is the fulfillment of the law.[27] By walking in love for those in need Jesus showed us that love was higher than the law.

We as sincere Christians have graduated from the old school, or at least we should have. But a lot of people would prefer to have a Don’t Do religion and feel righteous in their don't doing, rather than a Proactive religion which motivates them to get out and help others. Not only does the book of Galatians talk about this, but Romans and Hebrews and James and John. By reading the gospels if you look carefully you find the Son of Man breaking the Sabbath,[28][29][30] just like the high priest would do and be guiltless.

We shouldn’t be striving to keep the Ten Commandments, but we should be striving to keep the New Commandment;[31] to love and treat others as we would want to be treated.[32] We should be striving to keep the commandment of forgiveness,[33] of giving unto others,[34] of preaching the gospel, of loving our enemy, of doing good to those that hate us,[35] of helping the widow and the orphan and the poor,[36] of speaking the truth in love with our neighbor,[37] of not loving money[38] nor material things,[39] and of walking humbly before our God.

By accenting the Ten Commandments we're going back to kindergarten. When we should be those that can take meat, we are still feeding on the milk.[40] But many churches teach this sort of stuff and it's a shame. God wants more than our don’t doing. He wants to come into our lives and make us vessels He can use to love and help others.[41] It’s more complicated, and most people don’t want complications.

You see the focus is different. Apostle Paul says, do not use our liberty as an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.[42] The focus is on love and helping others,[43] being proactive, getting out witnessing[44] and helping the poor, etc. It’s loving service for others! Jesus took following God to a different level and Paul seemed to get the point more than any of the disciples. He tells us that love is a more excellent way![45] Some people call it Old Testament Christianity vs. New Testament Christianity.

The Apostles Peter and James in Jerusalem had to compromise to please the many Jews who converted and still kept the law.[46] Paul was out with the Gentiles and though the Jews persecuted him wherever he went he preferred to convert the Gentiles and make new bottles out of them instead of trying to pour new wine into old bottles.[47][48] When Paul did go back to Jerusalem and compromised with James on the principle of grace verses works, Paul ended up losing his head. [49] But nevertheless, we got all those beautiful epistles to read because of it. God does get great victories out of seeming defeats.[50]

Search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life,[51] and the scriptures, if read and studied with an open heart and mind, will lead us to these conclusions. We need to ask God by His Holy Spirit to open our eyes to the wonderful things contained in His Word.[52] The Holy Spirit promises to lead and guide us into all truth.[53] Could the Holy Spirit be speaking through these words right now?

When I had my God experience, I found out that God was love,[54] and that love was the answer. At that moment, I was able to go home and apologize to my father whom I had not spoken to for various years due to a physical fight we had had. It was not rules that motivated me to change, but was God's Spirit of love working in my heart. From my reading of the Gospels I see Jesus going around doing good and breaking the religious rules over and over again. Is He purposely doing so to try to help us to get the point that it is not in that direction?[55] The letter kills but the spirit gives life.[56]

The debate between grace and works is similar to the evolution/creation controversy, where both sides look at the same evidence and come up with totally different conclusions. Just like the evolutionists cannot understand the creationists view point because "they are spiritually discerned,"[57] the brethren that still want to keep the law,

have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For you being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish your own righteousness, have not submitted yourself unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes.[58]

Jesus has saved me and Jesus will keep me saved. It is none of my own self-righteousness.[59]

Every church has their rules as every club does. But let us not confuse church or denomination rules with God's Law. Many churches give lip service to Salvation by grace[60] but in fact have a mixture of grace and works. The obligating of the Sabbath and kosher and Ten Commandments Laws is actually a mixture of grace and works. Jesus saves me, but I need to keep myself saved? Sorry, I can't do it. I couldn't save myself, nor am I able to keep myself saved by keeping some old religious rules that could never save in the first place.[61][62] The rules were meant to show us that we are incapable of saving ourselves and are completely dependent on the love and mercy of God.

The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto to Christ that we might be justified by faith.[63]

That if it be by grace, then is it no more works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace, otherwise work is no more work.[64]

For me, I am totally dependent on the complete mercy and love of God. My own righteousness is stinking filthy rags.[65] Sorry, fellows, some of us do not understand salvation yet. We are still trying to save ourselves, even though we say we are not. Maybe it's the self-righteous feeling we get by rule keeping, that blinds us to the simple truth of the Gospel. But brethren, we have a new and a better covenant.[66] It's just so simple that many miss it. What about you? 

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Notes:

[1] Galatians 2:16
[2] Matthew 19:21
[3] Mark 16:15
[4] Matthew 5:44
[5] Mark 16:16
[6] Matthew 10:8
[7] Isaiah 58:1-2
[8] Isaiah 58:3
[9] Isaiah 58:4-5
[10] Isaiah 58:6-7
[11] Isaiah 58:8
[12] Isaiah 58:9-10
[13] Isaiah 58:11-12
[14] Isaiah 58:13-14
[15] Galatians 5:14
[16] James 1:27
[17] Isaiah 64:6
[18] Hebrews 11:4
[19] 1Samuel 15:22
[20] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E2hYDIFDIU (access 08/16)
[21] Genesis 4:2-5
[22] Luke 8:2
[23] Joshua 6:25
[24] Ruth 1-4
[25] Genesis 38
[26] Luke 6:31
[27] Romans 13:8
[28] Matthew 12:10
[29] John 5:10
[30] John 9:14
[31] John 13:34
[32] Luke 6:31
[33] Matthew 18: 21-22
[34] Matthew 5:42
[35] Matthew 5:44
[36] James 1:27
[37] Ephesians 4:15
[38] 1Timothy 6:10
[39] 1John 2:15
[40] Hebrews 5:12
[41] 2Corinthians 5:17
[42] Galatians 5:1
[43] Matthew 25:35-40
[44] Mark 16:15
[45] 1Corinthians 12:31-13:13
[46] Acts 21:20
[47] Acts 18:6
[48] Acts 28:28
[49] Acts 21:21-24
[50] Romans 8:28
[51] John 5:39
[52] Psalm 119:18
[53] John 16:13
[54] 1John 4:8
[55] Mark 7:6-9
[56] 2Corinthians 3:6
[57] 1Corinthians 2:14
[58] Romans 10:3-4
[59] Titus 3:5
[60] Ephesians 2:8-9
[61] Romans 7:18-19
[62] Romans 7: 24-25
[63] Galatians 3:24
[64] Romans 11:6
[65] Isaiah 64:6
[66] Hebrews 12:24