Walking Like Yeshua (Jesus) Walked.

Walking Like Yeshua (Jesus) Walked

I am frustrated...

For many years now, we have had within the Messianic Movement those Messianic leaders who have taught that the Torah is not for non-Jewish believers in Yeshua (Jesus). I remember once when my wife and I were planting a Messianic fellowship in Scranton, PA in 1993 that our fellowship was going to have an Oneg Shabbat. My wife informed the women of the fellowship that we were to follow the Leviticus 11 dietary laws when bringing food to the Oneg. One of the elderly Christian women who regularly attended our fellowship became irate and exclaimed (literally yelling, but I'm trying to be kind), "We don't have to follow the dietary Law! The 'Two Nice Jewish Boys' told us that!"

When I heard that, my jaw dropped. Since this was the first time I had heard of the "Two Nice Jewish Boys," I decided to do a little research and to my surprise, found out that one of them was a Messianic leader that I knew of from attending Messianic Conferences. Turns out, we were "wrestling" against the teachings of one of our own...

Back then, I thought that somehow the "Nice Jewish Boy" was being misunderstood or at least he was in the minority position of the Messianic Movement, which was then proclaiming "Yeshua, the Living Torah." Turns out that I was wrong: He was not being misunderstood, and he is not in the minority position within the Messianic Movement.

Yeshua, the Living Torah

In the Messianic Movement, we proclaim Yeshua (Jesus) the Living Torah: the Incarnate embodiment of Torah (John 1:1; 14). It was He, we say, who walked out Torah perfectly and who is the propitiation for our sins (Hebrews 4:15; 7:26-27; 1 John 2:1-2). It was He to whom the Torah pointed us, so that we would all (Jew and non-Jew) come to Him and He would atone for our sins (sin is the transgression of the Law - 1 John 3:4) and "save" us from the consequences of those sins.

**The "Salvation Experience" by itself is not the Summum Bonum of Our Relationship With Him**

As good and important as salvation is, there is something even greater than just our being saved. The "Salvation Experience" is really the starting point of our lives as believers, but that is not all there is to a relationship with Him: the Scripture also directs us (all of us, brethren, not only the Jewish brethren) to walk like Him and conduct our lives the way He did!

1 John 2:3-6:

By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

Walk like Yeshua walked

The preceding verse gives us a "litmus" test to help show us if we abide in Him or not: "the way we can be sure we know Him is if we are obeying His commands."

In other words, if you as a believer in Yeshua/Jesus (Jewish or not) say you really know Him, you will walk as He did. We're NOT talking about any sort of salvation by works here. This is an issue after the salvation issue is resolved! Now that you are saved, what kind of behavior is expected? That is what we're talking about. It puts us past the Acts 15:19-20, 28-29 minimum behavior of the Jerusalem Council and brings us to verse 21 "For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath"! The Gentile is now saved! What do we expect of him/her now? What direction will the life-change that their salvation experience began lead them to? The answer? "Moses!"

The Acts 15 council recognized that we now have non-Jewish believers in our synagogues, what do we do with them? Do we say to them, "Well, 'Moses' applies only to the Jewish brethren and not to you"? Maybe the question should be: "What do they do with 'Moses' (Torah)?" Should they just sit there, hearing him read in the synagogue every Shabbat and say to themselves, "Well, that's for my Jewish brethren only and doesn't apply to me." No, I believe the implication here in this verse is that the non-Jewish believers will hear Moses and will begin to do what is said there.

Else, why did Shaul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit insert additional commandments from Torah into all his Epistles to the Gentile believers (above the four prescribed by the Council in Acts 15)? He did so because he understood that his Gentile readers also needed to walk the way Yeshua walked, just as did the Jewish believers! If "the four" were all that was required for the non-Jewish believer, there would be no need for any additional commandments to be inserted.

The direction in all believers lives should always be toward a more "Christ-like"/"Messiah-like" walk: the WWJD question. In such and such a situation, "What Would Jesus (Yeshua) Do?" The answers to the WWJD questions can only come from one source: the Torah, since that was how He walked.

WWJD: If He were presented with unkosher "food" to eat, would He have eaten it? No, that is contrary to Torah. WWJD: If He were told that the first day of the week is the "Sabbath", would He have observed it as such? No, that is contrary to Torah. WWJD: If He were told that "gay" behavior was an "alternative lifestyle" would He have endorsed it? No, that is contrary to Torah. WWJD? We could go on and on...

For the many Messianic leaders that teach that the non-Jewish believers in Jesus do not need to keep Torah, I want to ask them: "Is Yeshua (Jesus) truly Torah Incarnate and does the Scripture tell us (Jewish and non-Jewish believers alike) that we are to 'walk as He walked'?"

If the answer to the first question is "Yes. Yeshua IS truly Torah Incarnate," then what's the answer to the second? Are Jewish and non-Jewish believers to walk as He walked? Or, is a non-Jewish believer to keep a different Torah than the one Yeshua walked out? If a different Torah, then are there two Torahs: One for Jewish believers in Yeshua and a separate one for non-Jewish believers? [Or did I miss something here when G-d says in several places that there is but "one Law for the native and the sojourner among you?"]

Let's take a look at the issue of Biblical kashruit (kosher laws). If a Jewish believer is defiled from eating unclean things, is the non-Jewish believer (Christian) somehow not defiled from eating the same things? Or, is it permissable for non-Jews to defile themselves with unclean things. Does G-d simply "wink" at the Christian who eats unclean things due to their ignorance of His dietary laws?

I'm asking these hard questions, because there needs to be a confrontation between light and darkness here. G-d is light and He wants His people (I assume all His people) to walk in the light (John 1). In Ephesians 5:1, Shaul (Paul) instructs his Gentile believers: Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.

If that is the case, that means even non-Jewish believers are all to "walk as He [Yeshua, G-d Incarnate] walked." How can a non-Jewish believer "walk as He walked" unless He walk in obedience to the Torah? How can a Gentile Christian even hope to "walk as He walked" unless they learn to walk in obedience to Torah? Finally, who is going to teach them how to "walk as He walked" unless they are Torah observant believers, too?

Be imitators of me, just as I also am of the Messiah...

Shaul (Paul) in his first letter to the Corinthians says to them: Be imitators of me, just as I also am of the Messiah. (11:1) Was Shaul walking a non-Torah observant life when he was living and working with the Gentiles? Was this the example he was setting and telling his followers to imitate? Or was he setting the example of walking a holy life, as exemplified in the life of a Torah-observant believer?

I believe that Shaul was setting an example of how to walk out Torah observance in a believer's life, it so also should be the example set by Messianic believers. Instead of excusing the Gentile believers in their non-Torah lifestyles, we should be setting the example of what it should mean to be a believer living a Torah observant life - as did Yeshua; as did Shaul.

Please don't misunderstand me, I didn't say, Jewish life. I am not saying that Gentile believers should become Jews. What I am saying is that Gentile believers should be encouraged to be more Torah-observant, as Yeshua and as Shaul were - however that plays out in their lives. [At the very least, we should not discourage them from being more Torah-observant, as some Messianic Jewish leaders are doing.]

When we look at Matthew 5:17-19, we recognize that those who keep Torah and so teach others will be called "great in the Kingdom" and those who disobey Torah and teach others to do so will be called "least in the Kingdom." Be it far from us as Messianics to "wink" at the Torah non-observance of our Gentile brethren for whatever reason. We should all be be working toward the maturing of the body of Messiah to the stature of Messiah (Ephesians 4:13) who walked out Torah in His life.

When those who are saying it is acceptable for non-Jewish believers to be non-Torah observant, aren't they placing those who listen to them (and even themselves?)into being "least in the Kingdom of Heaven"? Isn't it about time that true believers in Jesus (Yeshua) understand that if they truly call themselves "Christian" a "follower of Christ" that they need to "walk like He walked" in every sense of the Word?

Brothers, who is going to teach them unless it is the Messianic community which proclaims to follow the "Living Torah"? If we aren't willing to, then who will?