10 November 2003 00:54
Various Laws: This Being Part Oneso i'm curious. Jesus said in the sermon on the mount: (matt 5.17-19)
"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. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
so does this mean that we still need to follow the OT laws? they are not abolished are they? on top of that, since i haven't noticed heaven and earth disappearing, not a single iota will be removed from the law. sounds like it's still in effect to me. on top of that yet, he refers to even "the least of these commandments" as still being in effect. now whether he speaks of "these" being his commandments from the sermon, or the commandments from the "Law or the Prophets," that i don't know.
my application bible does some pretty fine hair splitting and doesn't favor a literal translation (i've noticed that tendency throughout it's notes). (this is beside my point, but it divides OT law into three categories: ceremonial, civil, and moral. it then dismisses out of hand the first two (although the "principles behind them" still apply... i'm touched by their generosity), and establishes the "moral" laws as being the only directly applicable OT laws that we should follow. for instance, we probably shouldn't kill someone, since the bible states "do not kill." but it's hard to interpret you know, the society of their day was far different from ours. perhaps God ment "do not kill" to be a civil law, just like "when you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, do not go into his house to get what he is offering as a pledge." this would mean that we really can kill people in our culture, provided we follow the spirit of the law, which is "do not kill unless you really need to." [5])
however begrudgingly, i'll accept that we are not literally to follow all OT laws, esp the ceremonial ones. those have been fulfilled by Christ and are no longer necessary etc etc, the strongest argument being the actions of the apostles in acts 15 where they specifically free the gentiles from the ceremonial laws. (free being an interesting word choice there, bringing romans 8 to mind). but wait, what's this, another thread to our rapidly unraveling discussion?! (i have such a high opionon of myself :) ). acts 15.29 just happens to require four things (NT law mind you). 1) (yes, this again is not my main topic) abstain from idol food. paul seems to have issues with that one (1cor 8 methinks), passing it off as an enlightenment thing, those who are "in the know" may do whatever they well please. maybe this is where my study bible is getting all it's liberal minded notions. 2) [abstain] from blood. fine. sounds good to me, though fans of steak tar-tar might disagree. 4) from sexual immorality. i think the sheer volume of injuctions against this particular genre of activity in both testements is ample enough evidence in favor of making this a solid concrete moral law (as much as such a broad generic command can be enforced. the grey area is huge). back to 3). thought i was skipping out eh? "[abstain] from the meat of strangled animals." this arguably could be lumped with #2, what's so wrong with these? i don't know off-hand if i've ever eaten a strangled animal. strangling an animal would of course leave it full of blood, the bible has always been against the eating of blood, but i've seen mom preparing meat that still had a little blood in it. she would drain it in the sink, then cook it. no biggie. i still find the four injunctions interesting, wondering why those four specifically were put in the letter.
all this as a precursor. my real objective tonight is to go through some OT laws and ponder them for a moment.
since i'ts my bedtime, i make it tomorrow's objective.
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