Do Christians Keep the Torah? Should We?

This is a issue that's been around for quite awhile and something that I've thought through for a long time, looking at Scripture and searching my own heart. I have studied both sides of the argument (for/against) thoroughly, have come to the following conclusions.

1) Christians can keep the Torah

In the gospels, the book of Acts and in the letters of Paul and the apostles, we see examples of disciples of Jesus/believers/"Christians" who kept the Law of Moses (Torah) and who didn't. Paul circumcised Timothy (who was half-Jewish), but not Titus (who wasn't Jewish at all).  From Scripture, it's possible to be a "Christian" or disciple of Jesus and to keep the law of Moses as someone who is culturally Jewish.

The biggest argument that Torah-observant Christians have in their favour is that Jesus was a fully observant Jew. He had fringes on His garments, He went to the temple and made aliyah, He worshipped in a synogogue (and outside of it), and so forth. Jesus was never recorded as breaking the Law of Moses though He had a different application and interpretation of it as compared to the other religious groups of His day. For example, Jesus did not consider it breaking the Sabbath to eat or to pluck and eat food from the field.


I think that we can respect and fully fellowship with fellow Christians who do "keep the Torah" as long as they are willing to fellowship with believers who "don't". The simple fact is that if someone believes that somehow I am deceived and not a true Christian (or needs to be "taught better") if I eat certain foods or fail to observe certain holy days according to their estimation, then I don't think we are going to be a good fit. If you think these issues are more important than believing that Jesus/Yeshua is our Messiah and Lord and that the world needs to hear His good news and worth breaking fellowship over, then so be it.

I also would disagree fully with the notion that a Christian must not keep the Torah, that we must purposely eat unclean foods and not observe the sabbath in order to be a true, non-legalistic follower of Jesus. I think the two ("Torah observance" and being a disciple of Yeshua) are not in conflict as long as your priorities are straight.

2) Christians can not keep the Torah

I would argue, however, that disciples of Jesus who don't come from an Torah-obervant Jewish background were never compelled to keep the Torah. To me, Acts 15 is as clear a day. Gentile converts don't have to be taught to keep the law of Moses or be circumcised. They can be, for all intents and purposes, Gentiles. Being a Gentile is not incompatible with being a disciple of Jesus. 

Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:
(Acts 15:24)

For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.
(Acts 15:28-29)

My interpretation hinges on a single nuance. I believe that as a disciple of Jesus, grafted into the "olive tree" and made an heir of Christ, I am a Gentile and I am not Jewish. I am and always will be a Gentile follower of Jesus, whom I believe is the Jewish messiah. I do not then try to convert myself to become a Jew - I think God made me a Gentile for a reason. Yes, I am an heir of God and I am a child of God but I am not a descendent of Abraham or partaker in the specific covenant God (YHWH) made with the children of Israel. When all is said and done, I may be wrong, but this is what I believe from Scripture. And it doesn't really make an ounce of difference in terms of my relationship with God, but more in how I live out my Christian life.

"Praise Him, all you Gentiles" (Psalm 117) and "The Gentiles shall see Your righteousness" (Isaiah 62) are some Scriptural passages that show that we can, as different nations of the earth, believe in the God of Israel. 

3) It's not really possible to keep all of the Torah

I did a study of Leviticus recently. Most of the commandments are unpracticable. They relate to rituals, to the temple, to the priesthood, to a lot of things that aren't really observed by Torah-observant people.

There are three types of laws I'd describe from the law of Moses from the perspective of Torah observance.

1) The unpracticable laws. These things relate to the past and to the future, but not to present. The temple for one thing. How to build an ark of the covenant. How to weave priests' garments. What do you if you have leprousy. Stoning people to death. Kidnapping captured women as wives.
2) Laws that are observable and that pretty much all Christians believe in - Moral laws like the Ten Commandments. We certainly believe that worshiping idols murder, incest, adultery, lying, stealing and coveting are wrong. I also don't believe in having tattoos either. These are a bigger big chunk of laws and they are really unarguable.

2) Laws that are observable but generally aren't. Mainly, the Sabbath, dietary laws, laws about ritual purity and the Feasts. 

We hinge "Torah observance" on these few select portions of the Torah. We make Torah observance to be about these few excerpts on the Torah while ignoring the previous two types of laws a lot of the time. And some of these areas are a bit gray - should I not cook lamb or veal in milk, or should I separate all meat and milk? (I'm not talking about Judaism, I'm talking about Christianity here)

If I don't get rid of all pasta in my house, am I not keeping Passover? Who's keeping a score here? Is there a checklist I should follow? What qualifies as a cleansing bath? Should a menstruating woman sit on separate chairs? Can I use electricity on the Sabbath?

Some aspects of ritual purity and the feasts are tied to the Temple. What is the day of atonement without the High Priest and the tabernacle and the sacrificial goats, anyway? 

4) We aren't really given very precise instructions on how the Torah is to be practiced. 

Having a "legalistic" mindsets brings up more questions than answers. If I were to think, well, there's a very. specific. way. to keep the Torah and that God absolutely requires that I should do so, I would spend all my waking moments thinking about the unanswered questions like, is tearing toilet paper okay or not okay on the Sabbath? Does Sabbath start at sunset or sunrise? What calendar should we use to determine the right days to celebrate the feasts? I would think that those little nuances are extremely important, life and death issues (fear not, I don't).

As Christians, we don't have precise instructions on what to do with the Torah, as I mentioned above. If you believe Sabbath and the Feasts are important, another Christian who does believe in the same thing actually has a totally different way of applying and practicing it.  I  know fellow believers who do believe that keeping the Torah is important, but they aren't very tied up in knots about teensy details. Jesus really wasn't caught up in those details either.


The Bible doesn't give us very specific instructions for a reason, I'm sure. There are Christians who do keep the dietary requirements without very much fuss, who do observe the Sabbath without worrying about whether turning the lights on and off would be a serious infraction.

God isn't in heaven keeping score on how well we figure out how to keep the Torah, that I know. It is possible to keep His commandments out of love for Him and without strife, pride and judgmentalism. Loving Him is most important commandment anyway.

5) Let's focus on what's really important

In arguing over what we eat and whether we should wear mixed-fiber garments or not, we are forgetting the biggest picture and are not "setting our minds on things above".

I can name you three things that are infinitely more important and that everyone on "both sides of the fence" should focus on, rather than a few laws from the books of Moses.

Firstly, unity in the body of Christ. The early church consisted of people from all walks of life, social classes, ethnic backgrounds and differing levels of "Torah observance". They had trouble getting along occasionally and so do we. However, the way that the whole world knows we are Jesus' disciples is if we have love for one another. 

This following passage from Romans is I feel a final conclusion on the matter: we are to love one another and never, ever, judge one another based on food, holidays and any such matters. 

Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him. Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand. One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
(Romans 14:3-10)

If any Christian at any times evaluates another believer based on this practice or that practice, then he or she is seriously in the wrong, no matter how "right" he or she may seem.

Secondly, love is the most important thing. We don't usually associate this with the Torah but this is not only a commandment in the law of Moses but also a commandment of Jesus Christ. Love God, love our neighbours, love our brethren, law down our lives for one another and so forth.

1 Corinthians 13 says that if we hath not love, we really hath nothing. Everything hinges on love.

Thirdly, the commandments of Jesus. 

Both non-Torah-observant and Torah-observant Christians often forget that Jesus also gave us commandments. They are the commandments of the Father, obviously, but they do differ from Moses's commandments. For example, Moses permitted divorce but Jesus makes it clear that that was not a part of God's original plan. Jesus brought a higher law - you could call it the "law of liberty". The Torah never told us to love our enemies, it told us to slay them with swords. Obviously there is a difference, not because God is inconsistent but because the law had a purpose.


He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.
(Matthew 19:8)








I believe that the law given at Mount Sinai is not a perfect, eternal and final representation of God's eternal law. God is the perfect, final and eternal representation of His law, and Jesus was. Jesus was the Word and the Word made flesh.

This is where I also differ from Christians who believe in observing the Torah. I believe that the Torah was temporary and imperfect. Simply put, if it had been perfect then we would have had no need for Jesus. We can simply convert, keep the law, and be saved. It was also given at a particular time to a particular people. Some of it is eternal, and some of it, like the clause allowing divorce, is obviously imperfect. 

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
(Matthew 5:21-22)

The Torah could only judge men's actions and offer temporary forgiveness. It could not judge men's hearts not change men's hearts.

For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
(Galatians 3:18)

Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
(Galatians 3:24-29)

 If the first thing we are teaching new believers are not the commandments of Jesus which He clearly told us to teach, then we are doing them a serious disfavour and warping the gospel. We need to go back to the importance of discipleship, of taking up our cross, of receiving the Holy Spirit... of preaching the gospel, or being "lights" in the world, and so forth. Basically, the teachings of Jesus must be first and foremost.

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
(Matthew 7:24)

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
(Matthew 28:19-20)

All this being said, I do believe that all Scripture is given by God and absolutely important.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
(2 Timothy 3:16-17)


Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
(1 Corinthians 10:11)

The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.
(Luke 16:16-17)


Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
(Matthew 5:17-20)

Conclusion

 I could write pages and pages upon the subject, and quote Scriptures more intensively than I have hear. However, it is suffice to say that my heart is at rest and that I am at peace. Rather than ignoring the issue I have faced it head-on and have emerged without being confused, dismayed and disheartened.

 I sincerely believe that observing a few holy days and dietary laws have nothing to do with one's maturity in Christ or walk with God. These things are not wrong in themselves but can very easily become too important and cause us to be blinded by self-importance and legalism (as I know all too well from personal experience).

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
(Colossians 2:16-17)

Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not; Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh. (Colossians 2:20-23)

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
(Colossians 3:1-4)