Jon writes:
It gives us a specific case, yes, but is it a relevant case? Even Paul, who says: "it is evidence that no man is justified before God by the law" (Gal 3:11), gives moral teachings, particularly on marriage (see 1 Corinthians , for example). Marriage, murder, adulterythese things are still part of the Christian moral teaching; these parts of the Law didn't just disappear like other parts.
I think that it is completely relevant, but so are the other examples that you use. I think that part of the problem is that we tend to think to much along the lines of human laws of behaviour instead of laws of the heart.
I'll go back to what I said before except apply it to murder. If the only thing that stops us from murdering is due to negative consequences for ourselves then from a God perspective for us personally there isn't a lot of difference, if any, between that and actually committing murder.
The reason I used adultery is because of the quote I used earlier from Matthew 5.
quote:
27 "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
The point is that it is about having our heart in the right place. If our heart is in the right place then there are no need for the laws because our natural desire is to follow the laws instinctively. The laws IMHO are examples of what it looks like when are hearts are in the right place.
AbE I remembered this passage from Romans 2 later.
quote:
12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13 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. 14 (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, 15 since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)
I think it is fairly clear in this reading. If people see themselves as being subject to the Jewish laws then they would be going against what they believe God wants of them if they break them. However, Paul then goes on to say that the laws are written on the hearts of the Gentiles. Regardless of the laws or any religious belief we know in our hearts when we act in our own self interest at the expense of the interest of another, and we know at one level or another that should resist the temptation to do that. (end of edit)
Jon writes:
The parts of the Law that are really relevant are keeping kosher and circumcision. These were, as jar already pointed out, 'deal breakers' for early Gentile Christians who did not like having to give up certain foods or be bothered by the finer points of food preparation and were even more so against mutilating their penises.
These are the parts of the Law that really got dropped and set aside as the Jesus movement developed into the Christian religion.
Paul writes this in Romans 14:
quote:
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men. 19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. 21 It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall. 22 So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. 23 But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.
The Jewish laws on circumcision and the kosher food laws were, IMHO, a point of reference that distinguished the Jews from their neighbours. It gave them a sense of identity and marked them as the people of Yahweh. For Jews that might or might not continue to be an issue but for Gentiles, in most cases, it shouldn't have been an issue at all.
I think that Paul's point is that if in your heart you believe that by eating certain foods, (or not being circumcised for that matter), you are contravening what God wants of you then you should abstain from eating those foods.
In a more secular sense it someone is an alcoholic then pass on the beer. For myself, it doesn't matter one way or the other if I have a beer, but if I'm out with someone who is alcoholic then I should abstain.
It is about the heart or about what drives us to do what we do or don't do.
Edited by GDR, : In text
He has told you, O man, what is good ; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8
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