Paul says the Law of Christ is summed up by "bearing each other's burdens."
I argue the Law of Christ is the Law of Moses kept in a Christlike way:
- It demands good works.
- It prioritizes people over other commandments.
- It is driven by genuine compassion.
- It requires purity of heart.
Doing these aligns with bearing each other's burdens.
Torah without Messiah often leads to destruction
In the Jewish world, the Haredim, the Ultra-Orthodox Jews, believe themselves to be the most authentic form of Judaism. Their Torah observance is stricter than any major form of Judaism. In Israel, Haredi men don't have jobs; they are paid a stipend by the State of Israel to study Torah full-time.
They begin their shabbat earlier than everyone else. They end it later than everyone else.
They pre-rip toilet paper so you don't have to do that on Shabbat.
Their wear long tzitzit.
And many of these pious, stringent Torah observers kick, spit on, and curse people who disagree with their lifestyle:
I blogged about this before:
Why are tzitzit-wearing, Torah-observant men surrounding a woman, spitting at her, cursing her, and kicking her in the back, you ask?For religious reasons, of course!You see, the religious in Israel are supposed to study Torah! And the mean old Israeli government says the Ultra Orthodox must serve in the military like everyone else in Israel. But that infringes on their precious Torah study time! So, they riot! And spit! And curse!
God loves the Jewish people, including the Haredim. But they don't have a corner on Torah observance. In fact, some of that kind of Torah observance leads to destruction because it prioritizes the wrong things.
One of the reasons Messiah appeared was to show us how to properly keep the Torah. Judaism without Messiah will inevitably fall off the track, even in spectacular ways, even by its most stringent and pious adherents.
The Law of Christ demands good works
How did Messiah show us Torah observance?
First and perhaps chiefly: good works. In the opening chapters of the New Testament, both John the Baptist and Messiah tell people to turn from sin. John explains: "If you have really repented, produce good fruit to prove it."
Good fruit is good works.
John explained that any tree that doesn't produce fruit is fit to be chopped down and thrown into the fire.
I take that to mean, if you claim to know God but don't produce good fruit, God will cast you into hell.
That sounds pretty harsh, but this message is echoed by Messiah too. He told his disciples to "What good is salt if it's no longer salty? What good is a light hidden under a bowl? So let your light shine before men so that they may see your good works."
Your light, your saltiness, is good works.
What good is salt that has lost its saltiness? Yeshua says "It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled."
I take that to mean disciples of Jesus must have good works in their lives. God saves us by grace, without first measuring our works. But after we've come to know God, he expects us to have good works.
The Lord Jesus told us that the greatest commandments in the Torah are to love God with all your being and to love your neighbor as yourself. Love here implies action. King Yeshua explained this with the parable of the good Samaritan: a Levite, and then a Kohen (priest) see a man beaten on the side of the road. They walk by without helping. Then, a Samaritan sees the man, bandages his injuries, loads him on his donkey, brings him to the nearest inn, pays for a room at the inn, and then pays for the man's future expenses at the inn. Yeshua said, "This is the man who loved his neighbor."
How did the good Samaritan love his neighbor? By doing good works: bandaging wounds, transporting the injured man to where he'd receive care, paying for the person's expenses. Good works to a neighbor is how to love a neighbor as yourself.
When a crooked tax collector named Zaccheus sees the Master approaching, he tells Yeshua,
"Lord, I gave half of everything I own to the poor. I repaid everyone I cheated 4 times over."
Zaccheus is telling Messiah that he repented of his crooked ways and is now doing good works.
Yeshua responded to Zaccheus, "Today salvation has come to this home."
I take this to mean Yeshua rewarded Zaccheus for his good works.
Nearly a third of all of Yeshua's parables have to do with good works. For example,
- The parable of the sower is about people who produce a bumper crop of good fruit.
- The parable of the vineyard workers is about God rewarding those who do the good work the Master commanded them, whether large or small work.
- The parable of the two sons is about God rewarding those who actually do the work God told them to do, not those who say they'll do it but never do.
The parable of the talents is about God rewarding fruit-producing people, using whatever skills God has given them to produce good fruit for God. - The parable of the faithful servants is about God rewarding those who do the work He commanded.
- The parable of the fig tree tells us that God will uproot those people whose lives don't produce good fruit.
The Lord Yeshua makes good works of such priority, he says those who refuse to do them will be liable to hellfire.
"Then He will also say to those on the left, ‘Go away from Me, you cursed ones, into the everlasting fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger and you did not invite Me in; naked and you did not clothe Me; sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’“Then they too will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not care for You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Amen, I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me.’ These shall go off to everlasting punishment, but the righteous into everlasting life.”"
Those are good works according to our Master. And if you don't do them, you're with the goats. And the goats are going to hellfire.
The Law of Christ prioritizes people over other commandments
When the Holy Temple in Jerusalem was standing, people brought offerings to God and placed them on the altar. It was commanded to do so in the Torah of Moses.
In the Torah of Messiah, he says, "If your brother has something against you, first go reconcile with him. Then bring your offering."
This is an example of Yeshua placing priority on people. It's not that offerings are bad or shouldn't be done. It's that people are more important than offerings to God.
In another story of the Gospels, the religious leaders try to trap the Lord Messiah by seeing if he'll break the Sabbath by healing a sick man during Shabbat.
The Master says that it is permissible to do good on Shabbat, because people are more important than Shabbat. Additionally, he said that the Sabbath was created for humanity's sake, not the other way around. So we should prioritize people over the Sabbath. It doesn't mean the Sabbath is unimportant. It means people are more important than the Sabbath. Doing good to help people on the Sabbath is not breaking the Torah; it is the proper and intended way to keep the Torah.
The Law of Moses tells us an eye for an eye: retribution must be limited in scope. If someone stole something, you were not permitted to kill them; rather, you could take back what was owed. Eye-for-an-eye was a great mercy in the ancient world.
The Law of Christ goes even further. The Master tells us not to resist a person doing something evil to you. If someone slaps you, let them slap you again. If someone takes your shirt, give him your coat too. In the Law of Christ, you don't seek retribution at all, and instead materially bless them, even if you were wronged by them.
(This shows up again later in the New Testament, when Paul writes to the church at Corinth: "It is an utter failure that you have lawsuits among yourselves. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? But you yourselves do wrong and cheat - and against your brothers and sisters at that!")
The religious leaders 2000 years ago thought it wise to devote all your resources to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. What about using your resources for your family? They said, "What my parents may have gained from me has been gifted to God." The Torah observance of the most stringent form of Judaism were genuinely convinced it was better to give to the Temple than take care of one's parents. After all, the Temple is more important than anyone's parents.
But the Lord Yeshua said this voids the word of God. In the Law of Christ, mother and father are prioritized over giving to the Temple. It's not the Temple is unimportant. It's that parents are more important than giving to holy causes.
The Law of Christ prioritizes people even when they're evil, even when they're enemies. The Law of Moses tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves. The Law of Christ goes further and says to love your enemies and pray for wicked people.
This statement for the Lord has changed lives. Rabbi Daniel Zion, chief rabbi of Bulgaria during World War II, came across Yeshua's commandment to love your enemy. The enemy for R. Zion was the Nazis who were trying to send Bulgarian Jews to death camps. R. Zion wrote a poem in his journal,
No not I, only You are Yeshua in meOnly You can bring me before the God of my fathersOnly You can heal me from every illnessOnly You teach me to love all creationOnly You teach me to even love the enemyFor this reason I will stay within Your loveForever I will be within Your will
(This poem has been set to music in recent times.)
What does it mean to love your enemies? I don't have a good answer. A good start would be like Stephen, who prayed for the people who stoned him to death. A good start would be like Paul, who prayed that he would be cut off from God if it somehow meant his persecutors would find the Lord.
The Law of Christ prioritizes people over other commandments. Even wicked people, even your enemies.
The Law of Christ is driven by compassion
The Torah of Moses allows for divorce. Divorce is horrible today: it rips apart families, it creates lasting damage to the divorcees, and often lifelong damage to children of divorcees.
In Yeshua's day, divorce was even worse. Women had little means of supporting themselves outside of prostitution. A divorced woman had little prospect to be cared for in her old age. And her elderly parents would be in trouble as well. The Master said God still allowed for divorce because the people's hearts were hard.
The Lord Yeshua does not contradict the Torah, but in compassion he says divorce should be limited to extreme circumstances like adultery. Outside of extreme circumstances, the King says divorce is evil.
The Law of Christ is driven by compassion.
When the disciples asked Yeshua how to pray, he told them to ask in prayer,
"Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sinned against us."
In the Torah of Messiah, forgiving people is a matter of justice: if you don't forgive, neither will God forgive you.
Yeshua reiterated this point in a parable of the unforgiving servant. In the parable, a man owed the king a vast sum. The king had compassion and forgave the man's debt. Later, that same man was owed a small amount by another man. The man refused to forgive the other man's debt. When the king heard this, he punished the man he had previously pardoned.
I take this to mean that if we don't forgive people who do us wrong, God won't forgive us of the wrong we commit against him. A God of justice will, out of compassion, forgive our vast sin if we forgive the small sins others commit against us. In the Law of Christ, we're commanded to have compassion for people by forgiving them.
The Master showed genuine compassion repeatedly in the gospels. He had compassion on societies' outcasts: lepers, poor, Samaritans, demon possessed, reviled Roman soldiers, prostitutes, the sick, the untouchables, the thieving tax collectors.
He didn't condone their sin, but rather forgave them, healed them, ministered to them, blessed them tangibly.
Even touching some of 1st century societies' untouchables would render Jesus ritually unclean according to the Torah of Moses. The Lord Jesus still did it because His law is driven by compassion.
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, it is the Samaritan, a societal outcast, who is deemed righteous by his compassion to the injured traveler. In the Law of Christ, compassion drives good works.
Many of Yeshua's miracles were done out of a heart of compassion. The famous loaves & fishes miracle began with compassion: "I have compassion for the people because they've stayed with Me for three days and have had nothing to eat." What great works for the Lord will you accomplish if you begin with genuine compassion in your heart?
The Law of Christ requires purity of heart
When Jeremiah prophesied of a new covenant, a new age, a new relationship between God and His people. He said it will be different than before. Why? Because "I will put my Torah within them, yes, I will write it on their hearts."
What does having the Law of Moses written on your heart mean? I think it means that it's not just an external, for-show thing. It's really where your heart is at.
Honest question, are you following God because you love God? Or are you doing it for show? I have to ask myself this question.
I could do all these other things: good works, prioritize people, and show compassion. But if my heart isn't right, all will be inauthentic and none of it will last. I'll grow tired of doing the Law of Christ if my heart is not in it.
King Yeshua says that if you hate someone in the heart, it's a form of murder, and you're liable for judgement. This means that even if you treat someone nice, if you secretly hate them, it's no good. God sees it and will judge you for it.
The Lord Jesus says if you're faithful to your spouse, but secretly lust in your heart after another, you've already committed adultery. God sees the heart and will judge you for it.
When the religious leaders chided Yeshua for not washing his hands before eating, the Master said, "It's not food that renders someone unholy, but what comes forth from the heart. For out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, lies, slander."
The Law of Christ requires that our hearts be pure. Outward action alone isn't enough. And this is a fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecy: the Law of God written on the heart.
King Messiah revealed in the beatitudes a great reward for those with pure heart: they will see God. I want to see God.
Conclusion
I said at the beginning of this post that the Law of Christ, whatever it is, must be summed up as "bearing one another's burdens." (Galatians 6:2)
The Law of Christ is the right way of keeping the Law of Moses. It's keeping the Torah as God intended it to be kept. As I see it, in at least 4 ways: a Torah observance defined by good works, a priority on people, driven by compassion, emanating out of a pure heart.
The video of the Haredim spitting on and cursing that IDF soldier. Why was that act against the Law of Christ?
- Because it deprioritized people. These Haredim believed that Torah study is more important than the way you treat people. Therefore, it was right to kick, spit on, and curse a woman helping a car through traffic. The full video appears to show them stealing the woman's phone as well.
- Because it not driven by compassion, but by love of self. The Haredim wanted to continue the gravy train of free government money to preserve their way of life, and that was more important than the IDF woman helping a car through traffic.
- Because it did not prioritize good works. Good works would have helped the car through the protest. Good works would blessed the soldier doing her job. Instead of good works, the Haredim in the video demonstrated the opposite.
- Because their hearts impure. A pure heart does not shout insults at an innocent woman. A pure heart does not spit on someone helping a car navigate safely through a protest. What kind of heart must one have to not only spit, kick, and curse an innocent person, but encourage youth and kids to do the same?
God loves the Haredim and will save them when the time is right; as it's written, "all Israel will be saved." The Law of Christ commands that we pray for such people and love them. And to love them is to call out their sin and demand they return to the Lord in righteousness, not in piety that only appears righteous on the surface.
I suspect there is a great deal more to the Law of Christ, for which Christians are called to keep. I have failed at keeping it. I am working on doing better. I ask the Lord now to show me more of what the Law of Christ is. I ask Him now to help me to keep it. I ask Him now to do the same for you, dear reader.
