Shellfish Bad, Incest Good

  Conversations never really get old and die.  They just find new people to participate in them.  Likewise, I find myself compelled to join in the same discussions over and over, with new faces.  The specific conversation that I have in mind has to do with why Christians seem to cling to some parts of the law, but not others.  Have you ever read through the law?  There is some odd stuff in there.  At one time, God forbade polyester cotton.  I’m serious.   Sometimes, people notice these apparent inconsistencies in our thinking.  This week I found myself back in that same old conversation. 

  There was a guy who noticed that some of us seem to be fine with eating shellfish, but hold to some other laws as found in the Old Testament.  I’m not one to argue with people, but I did pose the question, “Do you know why that is?”

  To be honest, I didn’t anticipate ever having to answer back to a response.  I don’t answer people who already have it figured out.  I’m busy enough trying to walk with people who really want to know about God, than to take on anyone who is just trying to make a point.  So I was surprised when a friend of mine asked me on Facebook.  Why do many Christians hold to some OT laws and not others?  Being convinced that it was an honest question, here are my thoughts.

  There are many approaches one might take in answering the question.  As for the shellfish, you might want to read Acts 10.  One of my other friends brought to mind Matthew 15:11, where we’re told that it isn’t what goes in our mouth that defiles us.

  If the topic interests you, I encourage you to read the story line beginning in Acts 15.  In Antioch of Syria, Gentile converts were told that in order to become believers, they would have to be circumcised and required to follow the law of Moses.  Acts 15:5

  It was very troubling, and why wouldn’t it be?  Have you ever read the law?  A few years ago, there was an article published in Macleans magazine where a man tried to do everything found in the law.  The conclusion he came to was exactly the same conclusion that Peter had come to.  It wasn’t possible.  Peter challenged the apostles on the issue saying as much in verse 10, “...Why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear?”

   The law was an unbearable burden.  If you don’t believe me, try it on sometime.  So what do you do with the law then?  I mean, some of the laws were good right?  How about murder?  Is that fine?  Incest?  Some people are fine with incest.   How would you have answered the issue?  Would you have answered as Peter did?

“...We should write and tell them to abstain from eating food offered to idols, from sexual immorality, from eating meat of strangled animals and from consuming blood.”  Acts 15:20

   I won’t get into the blood, road kill or idolatry for the moment because I want to remain on the question at hand.  God is still very serious about sexual immorality, so when many Christians read through the law, it seems like a safe bet to assume that He is still serious about the stands He took, when speaking through Moses in the book of Leviticus.  For some of those sins, God used to punish people by having them publicly executed. 

  I say that in order to express the following;  If God wanted people to be killed for doing something, it’s pretty safe to say that He was rather serious about it.

    I hope this helps you my friend.  Keep asking honest questions.