When it comes to applying the
Bible today, there are many, many commandments in the Bible,
and should Christians obey them all? We think of all these commands,
for instance, in the Old Testament, and some people charge us as
Christians with being inconsistent. They'll say, you follow the commandments
you happen to agree with, but many other commandments in the
Bible you choose to ignore. For example, the Bible says don't
wear a garment with two different kinds of cloth. So don't wear
a garment with polyester and cotton. I mean, we have all kinds
of commands like this in the Bible. Don't boil a goat in its
mother's milk. I mean, nobody thinks about that
command. Maybe some of you haven't even
heard of that command. Clearly, I would say as Christians, we're
not the first Christians to think about these things. Clearly Christians
have argued, even if you're not aware of this, no, we're not
required to obey all the commands in scripture. So the question
is, is that arbitrary? Is that whimsical? Do we have
a reason? Do we have a foundation for what we're saying? And I'd
say we do have a reason. We do have a foundation. There's
a good reason. And that good reason is we have
to read the Bible in terms of its storyline. We have to read
the Bible in terms of its covenantal development. So there are many
covenants mentioned in the Bible, but for our purposes here, there's
an old covenant made with Israel. That covenant made with Israel,
they had certain requirements, and those requirements that were
given to Israel set them apart from the nations. It distinguished
Israel from the nations. So we have an Old Covenant, and
then we have a New Covenant in Jesus Christ. That New Covenant
is prophesied in Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel 36, other passages as
well. When we read the whole Bible,
when we read the Old Covenant in light of the New, we see that
that Old Covenant has passed away. Christians are no longer
under the Old Covenant. They are no longer under the
stipulations, the commands, the prescriptions in that Old Covenant. The New Covenant is new. So none
of the commands, I would argue, none of the commands in the Old
Testament are binding in and of themselves because that whole
covenant has passed away as a package. We're under the New Covenant
entirely. So really the question is, why
do we keep any of the commands in the Old Covenant? Not why
do we avoid some, but why do we keep some of them? And we
do keep some of them, don't we? Some of them are repeated in
the New Testament. Don't commit adultery. Honor
your father and mother. Don't murder. Don't steal. Don't
lie. And some other commandments as
well. Is there a rationale in what the New Testament writers
are doing? And I think the most helpful
way to think of it, actually, is the New Testament writers,
I think, argue that we are under now what Paul calls the law of
Christ. in Galatians 6, verse 2, 1 Corinthians
9, verses 20 and 21. We're not under the law of Moses,
we're under the law of Christ. What is the law of Christ fundamentally? Galatians 5, 14, the law of Christ
is the law of love. And that's what Jesus taught
too. That's in Paul, Galatians. But Jesus taught, Matthew 22,
how do you summarize what the law is about ethically? It's
about loving God and loving your neighbor. And then both Jesus
and Paul and other New Testament writers unpack what that love
is. What does love look like? Well,
if you love, you honor your father and mother. If you love, you
don't steal. If you love, you don't murder. And you don't commit
adultery. So some of those commands, it's
not surprising, is it? Some of those commands from the
Old Testament pass over. Some of those commands, they're
still required for today. But they're not required because
they're part of the Old Covenant. They're required because the
New Testament indicates that they're part of the law of Christ.
So I think actually when we read the scripture, we're not being
arbitrary. We're not being whimsical. We're not just picking out the
commands we want to obey. We're actually being faithful.
We're being faithful to what the Bible as a whole teaches
us. We're reading the Bible in light
of the whole story, in light of the fulfillment that's in
Jesus Christ. The nation of Israel, it was
intended to be enforced for a certain period of time. It was a state
and a church. But now the Church of Jesus Christ
is in every nation, in every people group, and the commands,
the laws that are required, they're different than the laws for a
small little nation that was a political and church entity. What God requires of us in the
New Covenant is clear. I mean, it's fundamentally, what
he fundamentally calls us to is to love one another. It's
pretty remarkable when we read the New Testament that the New
Testament isn't filled with detailed regulations. The New Testament
focuses on love of God and love of neighbor. And then it kind
of sketches in for us, okay, here's what love looks like in
broad strokes. But we're fundamentally called
upon to imitate Jesus Christ. to follow in his footsteps. We see what the love of God is
like in the cross of Jesus Christ and his self-giving love for
others. And that's what God calls us
to as Christians. Thanks for watching Honest Answers.
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