{"id":1888,"date":"2012-03-12T20:49:21","date_gmt":"2012-03-13T03:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/?p=1888"},"modified":"2024-07-20T10:17:10","modified_gmt":"2024-07-20T16:17:10","slug":"some-rules-to-live-by","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/2012\/03\/some-rules-to-live-by","title":{"rendered":"Some Rules to Live By"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this post<\/a> awhile back I had been working my way through the Old Testament law and was struggling with trying to determine how much of it really applies to me (a non-Jewish Christian).<\/p>\n

I wasn’t very happy with where I ended up, which was to do some studying of the Levitical laws and ceremonies and what they really meant to see how they should apply to me today. Well, thank God for Beth Moore (and her daughter Melissa) for shedding some light on this area for me. They point out that this is also an area that the early church had to traverse as they formed a new religion out of the traditional Jews AND the Gentiles. “This new thing God did meant Gentiles no longer needed to convert to Judaism to be included among god’s people. In Peter’s words, God has purified or cleansed the Gentiles’ hearts by faith.” (Melissa)<\/p>\n

In Acts 15, commonly referred to as the Jerusalem Council, we find Paul and Barnabas appointed to attend a meeting with the elders in Jerusalem to once again discuss the issue of circumcision and whether it applied to Gentiles, and to come to an agreement that would affect the direction Christianity was going. Their was ‘much discussion’, Peter made his statement referenced above, and when everyone had had their say James finally ‘spoke up’. We are studying James currently and are discovering that he was very influential in the early church in Jerusalem. He was a Jewish Christian leading the most Jewish of the converts out there (even some of the Pharisees). He recognized the need to have a diplomatic solution that would meet the desires of both sides of the issue (the Jews and the Gentiles). And this is what he decided: Acts 15:19,20 “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Why did he pick those four things? Because he KNEW the law. In Leviticus 17 and 18, these are the sections of the law that say “to the Jew and the alien<\/strong> among you”. He basically gave all the Gentile believers a free visa to Christianity, while restraining the Jewish converts from making them follow all of the 600+ laws that they had been trying to keep and hadn’t done a very good job at.<\/p>\n

So, now I have a better bearing on the rules I should live by from this side of the cross, Mark 12:30 which points to the 10 commandments and Acts 15 which points to the Levitical laws for the Jewish aliens. \ud83d\ude42 I’m much more excited about that than trying to wade through all of the law to determine what applies to me. If I could just get that love thing down, I think everything else would fall into place.<\/p>\n

Mark 12:30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.\u2019 31 The second is this: \u2018You shall love your neighbor as yourself.\u2019 There is no other commandment greater than these.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this post awhile back I had been working my way through the Old Testament law and was struggling with trying to determine how much of it really applies to me (a non-Jewish Christian). I wasn’t very happy with where I ended up, which was to do some studying of the Levitical laws and ceremonies…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[150,151,20,147,148,145,152,146,149],"class_list":["post-1888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faith","tag-alien","tag-gentile","tag-god","tag-jerusalem","tag-jewish","tag-law","tag-love","tag-old-testament","tag-rules","wpcat-9-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p504YJ-us","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1333,"url":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/2011\/08\/old-doesnt-mean-irrelevant","url_meta":{"origin":1888,"position":0},"title":"Old doesn’t mean Irrelevant","author":"Becca","date":"August 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This has been rattling around in my head for a few weeks now . . . getting ready to come out in something coherent I hope. :) Mark 12:30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","block_context":{"text":"Faith","link":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/cat\/faith"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themoehrings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/caa0b5c52c08d174eac91d53d5b5f988.jpg?fit=618%2C464&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themoehrings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/caa0b5c52c08d174eac91d53d5b5f988.jpg?fit=618%2C464&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themoehrings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/caa0b5c52c08d174eac91d53d5b5f988.jpg?fit=618%2C464&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1330,"url":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/2011\/08\/we-are-a-first-generation-church","url_meta":{"origin":1888,"position":1},"title":"We are a First Generation Church","author":"Nate","date":"August 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been a long time since I've blogged. \u00a0I still have much I want to write about, but taking the time to blog hasn't been making the list. \u00a0I do apologize for this, both to you and God. \u00a0There is much I want to rejoice about, share with you, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","block_context":{"text":"Faith","link":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/cat\/faith"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themoehrings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/refining.jpg?fit=400%2C336&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":893,"url":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/2010\/10\/god-wants-you","url_meta":{"origin":1888,"position":2},"title":"God wants you (pointing finger)","author":"Nate","date":"October 31, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"In the style of Uncle Sam Wants You posters, God wants to join his army.\u00a0 Fortunately, God respects our free will and will never force you to do anything.\u00a0 But if you make yourself available, God is eager to use you for his purposes.\u00a0\u00a0And just like Uncle Sam, he doesn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","block_context":{"text":"Faith","link":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/cat\/faith"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themoehrings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/God_Needs_You-2.jpg?fit=480%2C360&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5847,"url":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/2006\/11\/verses-about-helping-orphans","url_meta":{"origin":1888,"position":3},"title":"Verses about helping orphans","author":"Becca","date":"November 5, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Old Law: Deut 24: 19 When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Becca"","block_context":{"text":"Becca","link":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/cat\/becca-2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themoehrings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Adoption-Shaped-Heart-Logo-PNG.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themoehrings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Adoption-Shaped-Heart-Logo-PNG.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themoehrings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Adoption-Shaped-Heart-Logo-PNG.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themoehrings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Adoption-Shaped-Heart-Logo-PNG.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themoehrings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Adoption-Shaped-Heart-Logo-PNG.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":721,"url":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/2010\/08\/bait-and-switch","url_meta":{"origin":1888,"position":4},"title":"Bait and Switch","author":"Becca","date":"August 17, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Ever since Jr. High I\u2019ve regularly had pain in my knees. If I don\u2019t do anything athletic for long periods of time my knees will return to a comfortable state, but immediately after any kind of athletic activity my knees well swell and stiffen for weeks. And of course this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","block_context":{"text":"Faith","link":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/cat\/faith"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themoehrings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/testimony.jpg?fit=512%2C341&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":730,"url":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/2010\/09\/god-will-nudge-you-if-you-ask","url_meta":{"origin":1888,"position":5},"title":"God will nudge you, if you ask","author":"Becca","date":"September 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A friend from small group shared that sometimes God wakes her up in the middle of the night with the feeling that she needs to pray, sometimes for specific things or people, sometimes for general things. I was kind of amazed by this, that someone could be so in-tune with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","block_context":{"text":"Faith","link":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/cat\/faith"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themoehrings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/testimony.jpg?fit=512%2C341&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themoehrings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/acts-15-council.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1888"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27345,"href":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888\/revisions\/27345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}