Commandment and Covenant
- Which Old Testament laws should Christians obey? (1)
- Which New Testament Commands Should Christians Obey? (2)
Surely the answer is, ‘All of them!’ Yet it isn’t quite as simple as that. Clearly, many New Testament commands are directed at individuals and their particular circumstances. When Jesus tells the rich young ruler that to be his disciple, he must first sell his possessions and give to the poor, we know that the Lord was addressing a personal stumbling block to faith, not giving a general command. We always need to examine Scripture in its setting.
The cultural context
One of the more difficult areas where discernment is required concerns the wider religious and cultural context of the New Testament. While the world of the New Testament may seem far less alien to us than that of the Old Testament, it was still very different from our own. While many commands in the New Testament were always intended to be taken metaphorically (the command to ‘take up our cross’ comes to mind) some that were originally intended to be taken literally have lost that force. For instance, virtually every warning against idolatry in the New Testament still has literal idol worship in mind. In a society where this is not likely to be a problem, we take the command to ‘flee idolatry’ metaphorically and apply it to anything that we might be tempted to put before God.
There are other commands that we obey metaphorically because they appear to be no longer relevant in our culture, such as with foot washing or with greeting each other with a ‘holy kiss.’ In the same way, when Paul tells Timothy he wants ‘men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing’, he is obviously concerned far more about the state of their hearts than their physical stance. It appears that many New Testament commands need to be obeyed not so much in the letter as in the spirit, in accordance with the prevailing cultural setting.
The overarching principle
Before we wade into deeper and potentially murkier waters, let’s establish the overarching principle that enables Christian believers to decide how to be obedient to God in every situation. The greatest privilege of belonging to the New Covenant is our union with Christ. We have spiritually died, risen and ascended into Heaven in Christ. Our salvation is therefore eternally secure. As we sometimes sing: ‘Once in him, in him forever, thus the eternal covenant stands’. Our union with Christ doesn’t stop there. Not only are we in Christ, but Christ is in us.
Listen to the apostle Paul:
For through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Gal. 2:19-20).
The life of faith is no longer about obedience to the external commandments of the law of Moses. We now obey the law of Christ, which is written on our minds and hearts and the Spirit of Christ indwells us, showing us how that law needs to be understood and applied in our daily lives.
The law of Christ is essentially very simple and can be summed up in one word: love. Jesus’ final words to his Father in the great high priestly prayer of John 17 go like this:
I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them (John 17:26).
The love of God is in our hearts because Christ himself is there. That is why and how the external ‘terms and conditions’ of the Old Covenant (and any previous biblical covenant between God and his people) are both abrogated and transcended.
Freed from cultural constraints
Love truly is the answer. As Jesus himself explained:
‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and Prophets hang on these two commandments (Matt. 22:37-40).
Of course, God has not changed. Jesus is quoting Old Testament commands, simply freeing them from the now redundant cultural trappings and detail of the Old Covenant. At the same time, he frees the people of God from having to abide by any merely cultural constraints in the future. After all, Jesus is about to bring to birth his international and multicultural church. It cannot be weighed down by requirements that are in any way rooted in, or bound to, any specific time or place.
The vast majority of the commands that appear in the New Testament are simply particular applications of this twin command. (Note, for example, Rom. 13:8-10, Gal. 5:14 and Col. 3:12-14.) Meanwhile, the only ‘new’ command that Jesus gives us is just an intensification of the command to love as it operates between believers:
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (John 13:34-35).
Only Christians can love one another as Christ loves them. Such love is always noted by the world.
The law of love in relation to the religious and social cultures of the New Testament helps us to determine how we should apply some of its potentially more confusing commands. Whatever our detailed understanding of the issue of head coverings in Corinth, for Paul it was a matter of respecting God’s created gender roles and avoiding scandalous accusations both within and outside the church. The cultural markers may change but, even in our present moral climate, love for God, our neighbours and our brothers and sisters in Christ should still cause us to present ourselves appropriately.
When love restricts freedom
Love for the weaker brethren explains a number of the New Testament commands that seem to restrict Christian freedom. The apostle Peter knew from the vision he received in Acts 10 that Jewish food laws were abolished. Why then did he later agree that Gentile believers must abstain from eating food sacrificed to idols, blood, and the meat of strangled animals? Out of love for those Jewish Christians who at the time had not yet realised that the New Covenant had totally replaced the Old Covenant. Similarly, Paul himself told the church in Corinth to avoid eating meat sacrificed to idols out of love for any weaker Gentile converts who might thereby have been led astray. These specific commands may have lost their relevance, but the principle of love that lies behind them remains. I must be willing to restrict my freedom in Christ if I might otherwise be in danger of offending the consciences of my brothers and sisters in Christ.
In closing, one of the clear commands of the New Testament tells us we should endure hardship whenever necessary. We must remember that our Christian ‘rights’ relate to the kingdom of God and not to the kingdoms of this world. Regardless of personal considerations, we are to obey whatever governing authorities are set over us, except when they clearly prevent us from obeying the higher law of love for God, our neighbours, and our fellow Christians. Ultimately, the law of love is the only true motivation for Christian obedience.
