Over the years I have been a believer in Yeshua (Jesus), I have found that the one absolute consistency among believers is their inconsistency. Now, the truth is that there are many things we do that do not require consistency. For instance, it shouldn’t matter if your praise music is from a hymnal or more modern chorus. It shouldn’t matter if you have musical instruments or sing accapella. It shouldn’t matter if you wear suits or casual clothing to services.
However, there are many things that should be consistent, because when we lack consistency in our practice and lifestyle, we cause confusion, not only within the body of believers, but also among those who are searching for answers. One of these inconsistencies comes to view when it comes to how we live for G-D. To put it more clearly, the need for believers to keep the commandments. Some believers say we need to keep every commandment in the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Others say we only need to keep the Ten Commandments. Still others say we only have to keep the commandments that were reiterated in the New Testament.
The truth is that no one, not even Yeshua, could keep all of the commandments. Because He was not a woman, He couldn’t keep any commandments given to women. He was not married, so He could not keep any commandments given to husbands. He was not a farmer, so He couldn't keep any commandments given to farmers. He was not a soldier, so He couldn’t keep any commandments given to soldiers. I think you get the picture. The point is that while it is impossible to keep all of the commandments, it is not impossible to keep all of the commandments that are relevant to us as individuals.
The truth is that while many say we must keep the Ten Commandments, very few of those who say that actually keep all ten. Most at best only keep nine because very few remember and keep the Sabbath Day holy. Some do attempt to keep Sunday as a Sabbath, but Sabbath was never changed to Sunday by G-D. But, that is a topic for another blog at another time.
It is also interesting that of those who teach keeping only the Ten Commandments, or only the Commandments reiterated in the New Testament, most also teach tithing or offerings as commandments that should be kept. These inconsistencies in which commandments should be kept causes the body of believers to look either hypocritical, divided, or confused.
On top of the inconsistency of which commandments need to be kept is the inconsistency of why we keep the commandments. There are those who believe that we keep the commandments in order to be in right standing with G-D. There are those who believe we keep the commandments in order to demonstrate our faith in Yeshua. There are those who believe that the only reason to keep the commandments is as a tool to share Yeshua with the Jewish people - keeping the commandments as a demonstration that they are still Jewish, even though they believe in Yeshua. There are even those who keep the commandments with the sole purpose of accessing the Jewish community as a disguise in a misguided attempt of “...being all things to all men that they might win some” (1 Corinthians 9:22). There are also those who believe that any attempt to keep any of the commandments at all is futile because of verses such as James 2:10:
10 For whoever keeps the whole Torah but stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.
Add to this those who make the conscious choice not to keep the commandments because they don’t want to be found “under the Law,” out of fear of a misunderstanding of verses, such as Romans 6:14:
14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
The cause of all of this inconsistency is a lack of biblical understanding accelerated by picking and choosing verses out of context. In order for us to be unified and consistent, we only need to understand a few things.
First: no one ever was “saved” or “redeemed” by the Law; everyone from Adam on, if they were found to be in right standing with G-D were found to be because of G-D’s grace. The very fact that G-D gave the written Torah to mankind was a demonstration of His grace. Remember, Noah was a righteous man who found grace.
Second: the Bible is one complete book, one message to mankind, so stop looking at it as if G-D changed two thirds of the way through the book.
Third: no one should ever keep the commandments in order to be saved, but everyone should keep the commandments because they are saved.
Fourth: you should keep any commandment found in the Bible that is both applicable to you and possible today. For example, there is no Temple or Priesthood, so we cannot possibly keep any commandments that require a Temple or Priesthood.
Fifth: not being able to keep a commandment isn’t a reason not to keep those that we can keep. The Bible provides a wonderful example in Daniel while he was in Babylon. He didn’t stop keeping the commandments he could do just because he wasn’t able to go to the Temple.
Sixth: being under the Law is a reference not to keeping the commandments in the Law, but rather to believing that our rightness with G-D was and is based upon our ability to keep the commandments, rather than the redemptive atonement provided by Yeshua. Once again, our rightness with G-D has never been based upon our ability to keep the commandments.
I believe it was exactly this kind of inconsistency that Paul was addressing in Ephesians 4:11-15, when he wrote about the need for the ministry to teach and equip towards mature adulthood, so that believers would not be blown over by every wind of doctrine.
11 He Himself gave some to be emissaries, some as prophets, some as proclaimers of the Good News, and some as shepherds and teachers—
12 to equip the kedoshim for the work of service, for building up the body of Messiah. 13 This will continue until we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of Ben-Elohim—to mature adulthood, to the measure of the stature of Messiah’s fullness. 14 As a result, we are no longer to be like children, tossed around by the waves and blown all over by every wind of teaching, by the trickery of men with cunning in deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all ways into Messiah, who is the Head.
Until we deal with and end this inconsistent inconsistency, we will never be as powerful a Body of Believers as we should be.