Christian Laws

The resurrected Jesus revealed himself to Paul and commissioned him to be an attendant and a witness of the things he had seen and would yet see. As an evidence of the authority given to Paul, he was given visions and powerful words. The first vision given to Paul, was seeing the disciple Ananias come in and restore his sight. When the vision became reality, Paul was baptized & received holy spirit.His authority came directly from Jesus and God.

.i was assuming you would know the account i was refering to

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Acts 9:1-20
9 But Saul, still breathing threat and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, in order that he might bring bound to Jerusalem any whom he found who belonged to The Way, both men and women.

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3Now as he was traveling he approached Damascus, when suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him, 4and he fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him: Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? 5He said: Who are you, Lord? He said: I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6Nevertheless, rise and enter into the city, and what you must do will be told you. 7Now the men that were journeying with him were standing speechless, hearing, indeed, the sound of a voice, but not beholding any man. 8But Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were opened he was seeing nothing. So they led him by the hand and conducted him into Damascus. 9And for three days he did not see anything, and he neither ate nor drank.

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10There was in Damascus a certain disciple named Anani′as, and the Lord said to him in a vision: Anani′as! He said: Here I am, Lord. 11The Lord said to him: Rise, go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man named Saul, from Tarsus. For, look! he is praying, 12and in a vision he has seen a man named Anani′as come in and lay his hands upon him that he might recover sight. 13But Anani′as answered: Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how many injurious things he did to your holy ones in Jerusalem. 14And here he has authority from the chief priests to put in bonds all those calling upon your name. 15But the Lord said to him: Be on your way, because this man is a chosen vessel to me to bear my name to the nations as well as to kings and the sons of Israel. 16For I shall show him plainly how many things he must suffer for my name.

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17So Anani′as went off and entered into the house, and he laid his hands upon him and said: Saul, brother, the Lord, the Jesus that appeared to you on the road over which you were coming, has sent me forth, in order that you may recover sight and be filled with holy spirit. 18And immediately there fell from his eyes what looked like scales, and he recovered sight; and he rose and was baptized, 19and he took food and gained strength.

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He got to be for some days with the disciples in Damascus, 20and immediately in the synagogues he began to preach Jesus, that this One is the Son of God.

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hi purpledawn,its been a while since i participated in this thread because quite honestly, you frustrate the begeebies out of me...and i mean that in the nicest possible way :wink: i just thought of an example that I hope will shed a little light on the subject of christian laws and their difference to mosiac laws.In the mosaic law, it was acceptable by that law for a man to practice polygomy. Im sure you would not disagree with that.Did you realise that the christian law was opposed to polygomy?Paul said in 1Timothy 3:2"The overseer should therefore be irreprehensible, a husband of one wife..."& 1Cor 7:22 Married people were councelled against having sex with anyone but their 1 marriage mate.... "yet, because of prevalence of fornication, let each man have his own wife and each woman have her own husband"IOW a man or woman who had sex with anyone but their marriage mate was practicing fornication. In the mosaic law, a man could have many wives and concubines and not be classified under the sin of fornication. This was not so in the christian congregation. Polygomy was not practiced because it became a christian law.do you still want to deny that the christians have their own set of laws.? Edited by Peg, : No reason given.Edited by Peg, : No reason given.

hang on a tick,
we are talking about the Mosiac Law, not the people of the time.In line with your argument, the christians did not merely keep followiing the mosaic laws as you claimIn the mosaic law it was permissible to have numerous wives. All the patriarchs did so did they not?Gen 16:3 "Then Sarai, Abrams wife, took Hagar, her Egyptian maidservant, at the end of ten years of Abrams dwelling in the land of Ca′naan, and gave her to A′bram her husband as his wife. 4Accordingly he had relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant."Samuel the prophets own father had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. Hannah was barren for a long time and it was by Gods blessing that Hannah finally became pregnant with Samuel who went on to be used as a prophet.Deut 21:15 15 In case a man comes to have two wives"
This was accepted and even regulated under the mosaic law. The christians on the other hand introduced something new.BTW, recently i went to the Pompei exhibibition here in melbourne, and slave girl/concubines were clearly and accepted practice by the romans.

i've been showing you plenty of support, you just dont seem to think that the bible is authoritive enough to support its own claimsif you want to know what the bible says, you have to accept what it says. However you keep rejecting everything that has come out of the bible in favor of other reference material.I would have thought the smart thing to do when studying a subject is to actually study the 'subject'If your preference is to study the opinions of people who are related to the subject only through critisim, then you'll never know the subject.The christians do have laws, if you dont know what they are then it may be time for you to start using the bible to locate them. Edited by Peg, : No reason given.

actually you can if the writer explains himself...a lot of the time the bible writers do explain themselves. i never said it was introduced by the christians...i said they forbade the mosaic law practice of polygomy to show you that they did not continue with judaism as you claimed they did.Remember the question is whether the christians have laws. You seem to think they remained a part of judaism and kept the mosaic law.The bible writer Paul showed otherwise when he clearly made the law that christian husbands were to only be a husband of 'one wife'

those taking the lead were the ones who had to set the right example...the rest were expected to follow their example. It was one standard for all, becoming a christian meant imitating the example of Christ.This is why Paul told christians to 'become imitators of me even as I am of the Christ' 1Cor 1:1

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Colosians 2:13 "...He kindly forgave us all our trespasses 14and blotted out the handwritten document against us, which consisted of decrees and which was in opposition to us; and He has taken it out of the way by nailing it to the torture stake. 15Stripping the governments and the authorities bare, he exhibited them in open public as conquered, leading them in a triumphal procession by means of it.
16Therefore let no man judge YOU in eating and drinking or in respect of a festival or of an observance of the new moon or of a sabbath; 17for those things are a shadow of the things to come, but the reality belongs to the Christ

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This is a clear statement of fact that the Mosaic law was removed and was no longer considered a legally binding requirment on christians.If you really beleive the christians remained a part of judaism, you certainly have to be able to explain why they wrote such things against it. Edited by Peg, : No reason given.

Here is my recap on Christian laws.Firstly, the laws for christians were not laid down in the same way as the mosaic law was. That law was written up as a list of binding laws...the christian laws were written down amongst the writings of the NT rather then in one long list.We know that there are commandments written for John speaks of the commandments of God in 1John 5:2-3 "By this we gain the knowledge that we are loving the children of God, when we are loving God and doing his commandments. 3For this is what the love of God means, that we observe his commandments" John wasnt speaking about the mosaic laws here. Those laws were not what the christians were following. They were following the 'law of the christ' according to Paul in 1Cor 9:21 "...I am under law toward Christ..."The laws of the Christ are expressed in both direct commands, and in principles. If a christian was to deliberately disregard either of these, then they would be judged adversely for their attitude toward such things.

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Acts 15:28For the holy spirit and we ourselves have favored adding no further burden to YOU, except these necessary things, 29to keep abstaining from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication"

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1 Corinthians 6:9-10 "What! Do YOU not know that unrighteous persons will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be misled. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men kept for unnatural purposes, nor men who lie with men, 10nor thieves, nor greedy persons, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit God’s kingdom"

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John 13:34 "I am giving YOU a new commandment, that YOU love one another; just as I have loved YOU, that YOU also love one another. 35By this all will know that YOU are my disciples, if YOU have love among yourselves.

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James 1:27 "The form of worship that is clean and undefiled from the standpoint of our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their tribulation, and to keep oneself without spot from the world"

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James 4:4 "Adulteresses, do YOU not know that the friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world is constituting himself an enemy of God"

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1John 2:15 "Do not be loving either the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him; 16because everything in the worldthe desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the showy display of one’s means of lifedoes not originate with the Father, but originates with the world"

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Matt 7:21 Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will"

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Matt 26:52 Return your sword to its place, for all those who take the sword will perish by the sword."

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Matt 7:1 Stop judging that you may not be judged"

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I could keep going thru the NT and pick out verses but rather then that i want to end with Jesus words about how christians will be judged.

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But if anyone hears my sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I came, not to judge the world, but to save the world. 48He that disregards me and does not receive my sayings has one to judge him. The word that I have spoken is what will judge him in the last day; 49because I have not spoken out of my own impulse, but the Father himself who sent me has given me a commandment as to what to tell and what to speak. 50Also, I know that his commandment means everlasting life. Therefore the things I speak, just as the Father has told me [them], so I speak [them].
  —Jesus Christ:John 12:47

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These words show that the things which Jesus and his disciples taught and recorded in the NT are the things by which Christians and all mankind will be judged. Jesus teachings/principles are the 'laws of the Christ' and they constitute the standards by which God will judge us. Edited by Peg, : No reason given.

in your previous post you said"She can't even tell me clearly what standards all Christians will be held accountable to on judgment day."then you say "God judging us by these standards, does not make them laws. How do we know those not spoken by Jesus are actually God's standards?"
which seems to mean that the standards of the NT are not laws.Yet, if Jesus said that christians would be 'judged' by how they apply his words & teachings, it implies that they are infact laws because all judgments are based on laws.I really dont care how you or anybody else defines a law, im interested in what God views as law and legally binding. If he is going to judge us on the basis of Jesus teachings then it stands to reason that according to him they are laws.Hence, the words of Jesus and his apostles are 'laws' that we will be held accountable to. Edited by Peg, : No reason given.

He did make some changes to the jewish laws. The law of the Christ was a new commandment based on love...not the mosaic law.If you look closely at Jesus teachings it becomes apparent that it is the principles behind the laws which Jesus was teaching...not the laws themselves. Nor did he approve of the oral laws which were being taught by the religious leaders for he contradicted them many times.One example is that he made divorce the sin adultery whereas the mosaic law did not.
Another is in his words about making oaths - Again you heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You must not swear without performing’ . . . However, I say to you: Do not swear at all.Another example is You heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.’ However, I say to you: Do not resist him that is wicked; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other also to him.Again here is another example of Jesus contradiction of the oral laws of the religious leaders: You heard that it was said, ‘You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ However, I say to you: Continue to love your enemies and to pray for those persecuting you.And his words about adultery were different too: You heard that it was said, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone that keeps on looking at a woman so as to have a passion for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.Murder was spoken of as: You heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You must not murder; but whoever commits a murder will be accountable to the court of justice.’ However, I say to you that everyone who continues wrathful with his brother will be accountable to the court of justice.He took the law one step further. He wasnt necessarily changing it but he was deepening and widening its force by showing the spirit behind it. Continued ill will became as serious as murder. Merely thinking lustful thoughts became as adultery. Divorcing without legal reason became tantamount to adultery. A higher law of truth shows repetitious oaths to be unnecessary. A higher law of mildness sets aside retaliation.He replaced the laws with a higher law based on the principles of the mosaic laws....and he outright contradicted the religious leaders and their oral laws.

ok purpledawn, you can believe whatever you like about what you consider to be law or notIts easy to do when you ignore the fact that Jesus quoted from the mosaic laws when teaching the people about those laws and how they 'should' be applied.