Let’s take a broader look at this Biblical Law thing.
Paul told us that we are obliged to study the Covenant of Moses, to rightly divide the Word. We are supposed to recognize the difference in context. We are not that people, in that place, at that period in history. We are obliged to recognize what parts of the Law are contextual, and what parts are universal. We cannot ape their code in detail and get it right. Our hearts are supposed to discern what the Law of Moses says about God’s character, and find ways to please Him in our lives.
So I wrote a long series here about the Law of Moses. Someday that will be revised and published as a book. The whole point was to share with you my impression about the high points from the narrative. I tried to turn it into a character study of our God. What really matters to Him in this world? You were supposed to read it with your heart engaged, so that you could discern whether my impression would work for you, or whether you needed to come up with your own.
All I can offer is what the Lord puts in my hands. It is not binding on you, but it’s binding on me. If you want to claim me as your elder, your spiritual covering, you’ll need to be able to look at what I call Biblical Law and decide that you can live with it.
So here’s a fresh outline of things I would emphasize. Kosher is not at all binding, in that Jesus flatly said so. But if part of that appeals to your heart, then go with it. Just don’t try to pressure someone else about it unless they are born, or bring themselves, under your spiritual dominion. The same goes with most of the ritual code of Moses. Jesus gave new meaning to some Old Testament rituals (Passover and baptism, for example), but the sacrificial system moves entirely into symbolism. He was the ultimate blood sacrifice, so we don’t kill animals at an altar any more.
However, the business about ritual purity could provide some useful symbols to put you in the right frame of mind about worship. For example, every Sunday morning before we worship in our home, I have a habit of taking a bath. It’s okay if the situation forces me to do it the night before, as long as it’s after sundown. The idea is to awaken the mode of thinking that we must purify ourselves to come into the Presence of the Lord. The point is what takes place inside of me, not the outside of my flesh. That much was clarified in Jesus’ teaching.
A lot of ritual code was simply a matter of the culture and customs of the time. How do you present yourself to someone with power? To mix and match what we have today with what they had back then is an art form. We rightly congregate together in various kinds of associations based on how closely our convictions lead us to the same path. That’s what it means to have a shared covenant of faith; your covenant family are people who end up on pretty much the same path.
Some issues are more substantive, in that they turn Western values on their head. Nepotism is a good thing, in general, but not if it becomes the excuse for promoting unworthy family members. There has to be some discipline, too. Jesus carefully selected which of His many cousins were fit for discipleship. The fleshly kinship symbolizes what should be a moral kinship. Fleshly birth is not the same as spiritual birth, Jesus once told Nicodemas. Thus, shared DNA takes a backseat to shared spiritual calling under the Covenant. In other words, Covenant relationships take precedence over blood kinship.
The whole point of any business activity is to bless people, not profit. Profit is simply how you keep it going so you can keep on blessing people. That’s your calculus. The primary goal is to keep your covenant tribe employed and prosperous. God was pretty strong on the notion that property was shared across the tribe. He gives more to some members of the tribe so they can in turn share with the other members. Sacrifice is the coinage in the Kingdom of Heaven. Some people in this world will never be productive in a monetary sense, but we still support them because that’s what God wants. The only question is what your convictions demand in terms of whom you support and whom you chase off.
It keeps coming back to that issue of shalom. You can’t possibly control how other people do things. The laws of secular or pagan governments (there is no biblical government in this world) are often simply a part of the persecution we face. Still, the issue is that your heart knows God’s will and you strive within the context to make it happen.
We know that God says humans must live in eastern feudal tribes, and that title to shared property is always with the head of household, while the things you can actually control by yourself are yours within the household. But all property must belong to some person, and impersonal corporations are flatly illegitimate before the Lord. So is impersonal investment. If you aren’t working in that specific operation in some capacity, you can’t invest in it. You can invest through an agent, but you cannot simply offer an impersonal bond. That agent must be family (blood or covenant), an actual feudal officer in your household, as it were. You cannot simply hire an agent unless they are under a shared covenant of faith.
Fat chance of that happening much in the US. Still, we know it’s God’s Law and strive to get as close to it as possible. We also know that cosmopolitan mixing is defiling, and we try to avoid it as much as possible. It’s flatly illegal in some ways to avoid that mixing, but it’s our duty to do what we can within our mission calling. So we look for ways to keep the bulk of our daily activities within the covenant boundaries. You’ll have to decide for yourself by your own convictions, but for my part, I insist we don’t do nearly as much as we could. To get my covering, you’ll end up moving toward the extreme. Our “in-group” is rather formally defined; we keep a far larger share of our daily lives private.
Some things are too obvious. Sexual matters in the Bible are far more strict than our American society. We need to think in terms of defilement and holiness, not pleasure opportunities. Our culture holds to a foul sexual idolatry. Cover yourself with appropriate clothing; we’ve covered that in some detail here. Be careful to differentiate in how you socially engage people outside of the covenant versus those inside the covenant. You need an internal mental structure that identifies folks as covenant family, allies and outsiders. People can move within that structure and become closer or farther, but you should have a pretty clear idea what and where the boundaries are.
These are the things Jesus taught, either directly or by implication. A lot of it was simply assumed because it wasn’t an issue He faced. However, it takes a real hardened heart to miss what He said about material wealth and how deceptive it is. We are to use it wisely to invest in shalom. We can’t control how He will lead people into and out of our lives, but we are obliged to respond to them according to the boundaries of Biblical Law. This is how we pursue our Father’s heart and His peace.
Don’t get lost in legalism, but do understand that the boundaries are firmer than most people imagine.
