The more you read that Bible the more you see these things as being pivotal elements commanded by God.
Now imagine for a moment that you are still that same believer and someone begins to dogmatically and emphatically tell you that you're serving a false god because you attend a fellowship on a specific day of the week. They tell you that you're not part of the Body of Christ because you've yet to understand the full details of living like Him. They begin to tell you that you're following a false Savior because you call Him by the wrong name. They tell you that you need to be re-baptized. They tell you that you are not saved by works in one breath, but in the next breath they tell you that you're not saved because you've yet to adhere to all the works. As your heart is to worship and learn this person with a hostile demeanor, begins to espouse that NASA is engaged in a conspiracy to hide the truth shape of the earth. As you're reading parables of the seeds that fall in the soil and the vines come and choke them out, this person is insisting that you read texts not in the Bible for sensational knowledge that is not rooted in the Messiah. As you are searching your heart and trying to remove the plank in your own eyes that you may help remove the speck in your brothers, This hostile person is obsessing over you and all the commands of God that you're not currently engaged in.
This is an issue that comes up all the time. A messianic person comes into, and I need to stress this, a DEEPER understanding in their walk with God... and they become jaded, demonizing any that don't immediately take to their understanding as part of some sinister papal plot. Just the other day I had asked someone if I since I called on Jesus for my salvation if I needed to get re-saved. I was disheartened that their answer was yes. They asked me "were you keeping the commands of God". Here's the thing on that, the answer is yes, I was, and so many of our brothers and sisters in the church are too. Was I keeping all of the commands? I didn't know all the commands yet to keep them! That is the same position that many of our brothers and sisters in the church are in. I personally feel as though this comes up every year, so here are some of the same points again:
Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” - Acts 15
Do you see where this is going?
But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.”- Acts 15
There are those that stated then, Just as they do today, that these new converts must be circumcised and followed all the commands of God in order to be saved. Now I know I'm about to lose some of my Messianic friends who might stop listening to what I am saying and start filling their mind with what they think I'm saying. No, I am not saying anything against the commands of God. No I am not diminishing the role of them in the life of the believer. Yes I believe that once we are saved we are to walk in obedience and repentance which is a life patterned after the Messiah. that being said, the point is...
Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.”...
Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles, but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood. For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath.”- Acts 15
... that the response from the Council was that there were four STARTER guidelines for new believers to adhere to so that they could begin to grow and learn the rest of the commands. They didn't say that these people aren't saved because they're not as knowledgeable or walking perfectly as they were in their more advanced years in the faith.
I'm arguing against the idea that a sapling that has yet to mature and bear the fullness of fruit is to be condemned because it isn't looking like the other trees in the harvest. That brings me to other parables.
And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.” - Luke 18
Avoiding adultery, paying tithes, fasting twice a week, these are righteous deeds. They are commanded things. Yet, in boasting of ones obedience with a heart of self righteousness is pride, especially when you're using your outlook to demonize the ones that are at the foot of the Savior confessing their sins with a humble heart. Again, I am not excusing those that have learned and understand what a sin is and have chosen to ignore it. I am by no means whitewashing eating swine's flesh which is stated is an abomination, or encouraging the violation of the Sabbath. These things are sins. However attending a service on sunday isn't wrong, its just not the Sabbath. It doesn't mean that you're worshipping the sun, it just means that you're meeting on a day that isn't the Sabbath. Do people not realize how many they are repelling from the truth with these types of antics? I've been in this walk for 16 years and as a seasoned veteran of navigating Messianic pitfalls, its made me want to hang my head more times than a few. Why would you having been freed from sins that held you, beat down your fellow brothers and sisters with such hostilities instead of exercising the patience and grace afforded to you by God as the Holy Spirit nurtured you up in the faith?
“For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. Then summoning him, his lord *said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”- Matt 18We were indebted to the Messiah before we came to faith, same as they were. We pleaded with our Savior for mercy just as they do. Now that we've gained a kernel of understanding, it is to our shame that we would go and treat harshly others and not extend the mercy God has shown us for those who might hear the truth? Can they even hear it over our anger and the side show topics that we bring into faith?
We as believers should not be so consumed with thinking that we are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, when we should be humbling ourselves and focusing on the Father.
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, 3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; 6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.- Matt 18
