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Murder Redefined

Christian Life, , , ,

MURDER REDEFINED

You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ (Matt 5: 21).

“This is a “halakhaic” formula.

By making this statement, Jesus was asserting that there is more to the requirements of Torah than meets the eye.

What is Halakhah?

The word “Halakhah” is usually translated “Jewish Law” although it should more accurately be translated as “the path that one walks”.

Judaism is much more than a set of beliefs about God, man and the universe. It is a comprehensive way of life governed by rules and practices that affect one’s whole life from morning until night and from life to death and, more especially it is about how you treat God, man, animals and the earth. This set of rules and practices is known as the Halakhah. Halakhah came from three sources; the Torah; laws instituted by the rabbi; and long-standing customs.

The ancient rabbis had made many pronouncements additional to the 613 laws of Torah in an attempt to interpret what Yahweh meant by His instructions. The result was a confusing conglomeration of rules and prohibitions which focused on external behaviour, but which often ignored the spirit of Torah or what Jesus called “the more important (or weightier) matters of Torah” (Matt. 23:23). 

When an “expert” in the law asked Jesus what he should do to inherit eternal life, Jesus threw the question back at him.

‘What is written in the Law?’ He replied. ‘How do you read it?’ (Luke 10:26)

The man responded by quoting from Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18.

Love the LORD you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength . . . Love your neighbour as yourself.

Jesus commended him for his answer and counselled him to do as the Torah said. But what was Torah saying?

The essence of the Torah was threefold: to protect love; to preserve unity, and to promote contentment.

All the regulations written in the Torah were detailed instructions for working out these three principles in their everyday circumstances. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus highlighted six areas where “Halakhah” pronouncements had clouded the issues and made them problems of behaviour and not of attitude.”

(Quoted from “Learning to be a Disciple” © 2104, Luella Campbell, Partridge Publishing, page 111-112)

The first area of concern was the issue of murder. According to Halakhah, the commandment not to murder had only to do with the actual act. However, Jesus examined the attitude which led to the act. If the attitude of the heart was wrong, it was as though the person had already committed murder even if he had not actually done the deed.

But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca’, is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool,’ will be in danger of the fire of hell (Gehenna). (Matt. 5:22)

“The issue is the dignity of another person. The question is not about taking someone else’s life. It’s about stripping the dignity off of someone else, looking down on him, treating him with contempt.  Jesus deals with this.

Since anger is the start of the slide towards murder, the anger must be dealt with before it goes any further. Anger, a sustained feeling of anger, is as much a reason for judgment as the act itself.  To say raca replicates the sound of someone who is about to spit, indicating a feeling of contempt. To call someone a fool is to judge him as a morally corrupt person, someone whose life is completely dysfunctional and therefore not worth anything, and must be exterminated.

Jesus said that we are just as guilty if we do it in our heart as if we had done it with our hand. If something is true in your imagination it might as well as be true. Once you want someone dead, or believe they are worthless or degrade them by slander or sarcasm or make fun of them, you are guilty of murder.

The antidote to murder is to apply the “weightier matters of the law” – justice, mercy and faithfulness. The answer is to keep on the path, with our eyes fastened on the “landmark” – Jesus, whom we are to follow because He is God’s light, the shining of the star that shows us the path. He is the words of Elohim.

By applying His yoke of mercy, Jesus swept aside all the irrelevant provisions of Halakhah and revealed the spirit of Torah. In Him, we see mercy in action. There is no need to clutter God’s Torah with intricate details of interpretation because Jesus is the model of mercy and, by imitating Him, we will fulfil His requirements.”

(“Learning to be a Disciple,” page123-124)

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

 

Like Father, Like Son

Bible Study, , ,

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON 

“‘If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

“Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well.'” John 15:18-25 NIV.

It was time. Jesus knew that the frenzied mob were almost on Him. A few more hurried instructions to His frightened disciples before they came, and He would be ripped from their side and they would be on their own.

He needed to warn them of the chasm that existed between them and a hostile world system because of Him. They had to be very clear about whose side they were on. Their association with Him meant that they had taken a public stand for the kingdom of God and had automatically become friends of God and enemies of the state.

Jesus warned them not to be surprised by the treatment they would receive from the “world”, the human system represented by its authorities that had no mind to obey God and uphold His laws and His disposition. Humankind had declared war on Him in the Garden of Eden; the battle lines were drawn and the final showdown was about to begin. There was no time now to be undecided. They were to know on whose side they stood and were to recognise the source of the hatred and enmity that was arraigned against them.

This was not about them. It was about Him. The devil had declared war on God from the beginning. Human beings were the players in this battle. God had already evicted Satan and his minions from His immediate presence because of his arrogance and rebellion. Satan had no power over the Almighty, but he was determined to do as much damage as he could to the race of humans whom God passionately loved, and to go down fighting.

The war into which all mankind had been drawn, was reaching its crescendo in Jesus, the God-man who came to earth as the last Adam. Although the world did not know or acknowledge Him, the hope of rescue lay in Him alone. If He failed, He and all mankind were doomed to eternal separation from God.

How important it was for these few men to realise that they must resolutely stand on His side no matter how the world treated them! Jesus had invested everything He had and was in them. “Because of my name” was the reason for the world’s antagonism and they must know it. This was not a personal struggle, but a cosmic war and they were to stand for their King and their heavenly country, no matter what the cost.

As long as they understood the issues and the stakes, it would strengthen them resolutely to take their stand because they were not alone. Jesus was confident of the outcome because His victory was assured from before the foundation of the world. What was now being played out in history was already accomplished in eternity, hence they could have confidence in Him and in the final outcome.

Although His words seemed incomprehensible then, just like everything else He had taught them, the Holy Spirit would remind them at the appropriate moment and they would draw strength and direction from them to stand in the battle because their Master had already overcome the world.

For these men, and all who come after them, the operative word is “stand”. The war has already been won; the enemy has been vanquished; the struggle is over. Just as they were to know on whose side they were then, so we too must know that we are “in” the one who won the war. Ours is not to fight but to stand, secure in Him because His fight was ours, His victory ours and the enemy is only a loser who tries to unseat us with his lies.

Whatever the enemy tries to do to us reflects right back to the Father because, what they do to us, they do to Jesus; what they do to Jesus, they do to the Father because the Father and the Son are one, and we are “in Him”.

Both Lord And Christ

Bible Study, , , ,

BOTH LORD AND CHRIST 

“From this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.’You do not want to leave too, do you?’ Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.’ Then Jesus replied, ‘Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!’ (He meant Judas Iscariot who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray Him).” John 6:66-71 (NIV)

Good old Peter! For once he got it right!

For all their blundering, misunderstandings, prejudices and misperceptions, of one thing the Twelve had become convinced, that Jesus was the Son of God. They did not fully understand all the implications and they certainly clung tenaciously to the hope that He would deliver them from Rome, but they never abandoned their conviction that He was someone far more than human.

John was careful to identify and isolate Judas Iscariot as the traitor, but that did not mean that Judas was not also convinced of His identity. Why he betrayed Jesus is not absolutely clear. It could have been purely for money or it could have been his way of trying to force Jesus to do what he thought He would do — move supernaturally against the Romans during the Passover when Jerusalem was filled with Jews from in and outside Israel.

John made a clear distinction between two groups of disciples — the ones who were following Him for opportunistic reasons and the Twelve whom He had chosen. The first group was obvious fascinated by and drawn to Him because of the possibilities of what He could do for them. He healed them; He got rid of tormenting demons and He even fed them supernaturally from very little. If they could have a king like that, their troubles would be over.

The problem with this kind of faith is that it places false expectations on Jesus which He is under no obligation to fulfil. It is unfortunate that He is often presented to people as the solution to all their problems. Prayer and faith are a way to get what we want. When He does not meet to our expectations and capitulate to our demands, we either do what we can to appease Him, as though He were some pagan idol, or we become disillusioned and walk away like these fickle “disciples” did.

 

The Twelve followed Jesus because they were chosen. He selected ordinary men from many walks of life; fishermen, tax collectors, political activists, nobodies who were not already fashioned by the religious system to have fixed ideas about God and His Messiah.

When He began to speak about things they could not understand; about suffering and dying, which made no sense to them, they were sufficiently convinced about His identity to wait it out. Their expectations might have differed, even from one another’s but they were prepared to give Him a hearing because they had bonded with Him as a person even if they did not understand everything He said.

Peter voiced the thoughts of the group, and they agreed with him by sticking with Jesus when the others left. It must have heartened Jesus to know that He had a loyal group, even if it was only His intimate group of disciples whom He had personally invited to be His followers. They were not part of the “anyone” and the “whoever”. He called them by name and that meant a lot to them.

The fact that He lost only Judas from the Twelve is also surprising, given the harshness of His words. They may have trembled with fear, abandoned Him and run for cover, hidden in the Upper Room and lost all hope when He died, but that was only part of the process. Resurrection day changed all that. His words, falling on deaf ears then, took on explosive meaning when the implications burst on their understanding.

No doubt, they must have remembered Peter’s expression of their collective faith: ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.’ How glad they must have been to have stuck with Him then! Their faith had paid off. It was not about what He could do for them. It was all about who He was — both Lord and Christ to whom every knee shall bow.

Have you bowed to Him?