August 26, 2022

Passage Read: Acts 14-15
Meditation Verse: 15:10

Thought

The Pharisees were saying that the new Gentile converts needed to be circumcised and keep the whole Law of Moses. Peter answers and says that the whole Law was a burden that none of them have been able to keep. Jesus lived like a Jew, keeping the whole Law perfectly, and we are called to live like Him. But Jesus never taught about any of the ceremonial aspects of the law, except to say that food and unwashed hands did not make a man unclean. If anything, Jesus set aside the ceremonial aspects of the Law while explaining the moral aspects of the Law. Yet never in the New Testament is the Law of Moses taught in detail. We are no longer under the Law as a judge, though it has much to teach about loving God and men. We are taught to learn from all that was written in the past, but we need no longer fear the Law as a means of judgment. The only extensive teaching on the Law comes from Hebrews, which shows how Christ and faith in Him fulfills much of the ceremonial aspects of the Law.

Application

The Law is complicated and has much to say about things that cannot even be done today, without a Temple. But ultimately it is about how to love our neighbor as ourselves, and how to love God. Loving God really is just obeying His commands, and His commands are to worship no other god and to do good to those around us. In a sense, we are still called to live by the heart of the Law, without having to fear it. We died in Christ as demanded by the Law, so we are now beyond its reach. It cannot hurt me and has no power over me, but it still has much wisdom to give in knowing God and walking in His love.