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In the intervening time, I've engaged in intensive study and have determined that Jesus not only upheld the Moral Law, but that He demonstrated for all of us to see how to live by that Law. As such, my family keeps and honors all that He did. We are Torah observant in the areas that He upheld, but do recognize that our status as Gentiles does mean that there are certain areas where any observance on our part is purely voluntary (Acts 15). We freely acknowledge that the Moral Law is binding on all believers, whether they be Gentile or Jew, and that this is the standard by which we will all be judged.
The "moral law" is a concept that I have never understood.
I am not speaking out against Thomas Aquinas (he died in the 13th century and can not defend himself) nor the Roman Catholic Church, but frankly dividing the Torah into Civil, Moral, and Ceremonial is problematic at best, and may be much worse.
In the interest of brevity (difficult for me, ask my children!), I will illustrate with only one example.
Wayyiqra 19:19 (Leviticus) is pointed out as a ceremonial law.
19‘
Guard My laws. Do not let your livestock mate with another kind. Do not sow your field with mixed seed. And do not put a garment woven of two sorts of thread upon you.
And is its own sentence in the Catholic numbering system we all use for the Bible chapter and verse.
But it is actually the second half of a single sentence in the Torah Scroll along with verse 18
18‘
Do not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the children of your people. And you shall love your neighbour as yourself. I am יהוה.
So in the Torah Scroll for Wayyiqra (Leviticus), when translated into English, we would see:
"Do not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the children of your people. And you shall love your neighbour as yourself. I am יהוה guard My laws. Do not let your livestock mate with another kind. Do not sow your field with mixed seed. And do not put a garment woven of two sorts of thread upon you"
As you can see the flow makes more sense in the original. The end of 18 and the beginning of 19 are supposed to go together.
Now when we look at MattithYahu (Matthew) 22 we see Messiah being asked for the Greatest Commandment (Torah Mitzvoth - not Ten Commandments) what does he say:
36“Teacher, which is the great command in the Torah?”
37And יהושע said to him, “ ‘You shall love יהוה your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your being, and with all your mind.’
38“This is the first and great command.
39“And the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’
40“
On these two commands hang all the Torah and the Prophets.”
This is where He quoted from. The Greatest commandment (Along with the Shema in Debarim (Deuteronomy) 6. Smack dab in the middle of the "ceremonial verse" Messiah quotes the "Greatest commandment"!
This is one example of potential problems when applying Catholic understandings to Messianic worship and study.
Let us remember what Ya'aqob (James) the Messiah's brother said in chapter 2 of his epistle:
2:
10For whoever shall guard all the Torah, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.
or Messiah in the Sermon on the Mount in MattithYahu (Matthew) 5:
19“
Whoever, then, breaks one of the least of these commands, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the reign of the heavens; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the reign of the heavens.
Breaking the Torah into sections is not spoken out in the Bible. In fact it is spoken against.
Please do not think I am judging, just mentioning something we as Messianic Believers need to think about.
Shalom