old testament vs. new testament

[maye]

i have been a christian for years but sadly i have only recently really got into God's word. i read the Bible daily but i get confused about old testament law and today. i know that God dying on the cross for us took away the need for sacrificing but what other parts of the old testament are we to still uphold?

 

[whiteknite]

Off the top of my head I can only think of 1 thing from the Old Testament. The 10 Commandments. To me they are the most important as they pretty much sum up everything in a nutshel.

 

[Ashkuhn]

Good question.. I was wondering the same thing.

 

[thefightinglamb]

Love the Lord your god with all your heart, soul, mind and strength...and love your neighbor as yourself...if you get carried away with the laws and restrictions, you will become a slave to them...If you do these two and focus on them, everything else will follow...but not as a commandment written in stone but as a commandment written on your heart.

Not in the question but,
And the main new testament commandment of Jesus 'to love as he loved'.

May you seek to know the hieght and the depth of Christ's love
tony

 

[Thaddaeus]

we need the old testament to see who God is that He is the creator of all things how he expected His people to serve Him. don't throw any of it away and some say that about 2/3 of the new testament is old testament

 

[easygoing]

i have been a christian for years but sadly i have only recently really got into God's word. i read the Bible daily but i get confused about old testament law and today. i know that God dying on the cross for us took away the need for sacrificing but what other parts of the old testament are we to still uphold?

Read the book of Hebrews. Should be able to shed some light on it.

 

[MahogonySnail]

We'd get along fine not reading the old testament at all, only those parts which Jesus referred to Himself. In fact many christians hardly even touch the old testament apart from the stories of Noah, Moses and Pharaoh, Samson, David..and that's about it really.

But we'd be missing out on a lot.

The most important parts of the OT in my opinion is the book of Genesis, it really is the basis or grounding for Christ. The next part is the 10 commandments. But actually it's more like 9 commandments if we don't keep the Sabbath.

But the 10 commandments aren't the most important or greatest commandments. When Jesus was asked which commandment is the greatest, Jesus didn't even refer to the 10 commandments. He referred to love God with all your heart and your neighbour as yourself. So I think that part that Jesus quoted, and the 9 commandments (minus the sabbath) are important to know how to live. Or, if we want to add Jesus's two greatest commandments to the 10, we'd have a total of 12 commandments to live by. Or 11, if you don't keep the Sabbath.

The next most important part of the bible is Proverbs and Psalms. Proberbs teach us how to live, and the Psalms are most useful for praise, worship, any time really.

Then the Prophets are important, the ones which point towards Jesus and prophesy about Him. Isaiah , Elijah, are the big ones, and possibly some others I forget.

I don't personally bother much with Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, book of Numbers, and a few of the so called "lesser prophets".

 

[MahogonySnail]

So the commandments we observe are the two greatest ones (the love ones), plus the 10 commandments (or 9 really). Add the creation account of Genesis to that,plus the prophecies about Jesus, then add the wisdom and inspiration of the proverbs and psalms. These basically sum up the moral law and attitudes which God writes on our hearts by the Spirit. The issue is not really which parts we uphold and which we don't, but how we actually do that. Do we rely upon the letter of the Law or the Spirit of the Law? It should be the latter for the Christian.

 

[Cookie38115]

We need to know the past to understand the future. The old testiment is just as revelant and the new testiment. The Word is a roadmap to how to live life and live it more abundantly.

 

[Charles]

The old test was written for our learning and warning: Rom.15:4; 1 Cor.10:11. But who takes heed?

 

[Baptistrw]

So the commandments we observe are the two greatest ones (the love ones), plus the 10 commandments (or 9 really). Add the creation account of Genesis to that,plus the prophecies about Jesus, then add the wisdom and inspiration of the proverbs and psalms. These basically sum up the moral law and attitudes which God writes on our hearts by the Spirit. The issue is not really which parts we uphold and which we don't, but how we actually do that. Do we rely upon the letter of the Law or the Spirit of the Law? It should be the latter for the Christian.

Even the most mundane parts of the OT have an application we can apply to our lives. We can choose to throw stuff out, or we can dig into it and find something for us today.

 

[imoss]

if we didnt have the ot how would we know the amazing stories of Abraham and sarah and Gods promises and the peoples struggles with keeping the law in spite of being present for many miracles from God (parting of Red sea, water from rock... etc)... It shows us our humanity and Glorifies our Lord and Savior for coming here to face what we face and pay the ultimate sacrifice. Also often in prayer i've had Old Test. scripture come to mind and its answered my questions totally and completely... Praying about work & I got scripture with the water from the rock... praying about an incident that happened the night my mom died (I hadnt been advised yet & had something happen that kept me awake for hours), God validated that it was a "spirit" by giving me Job 4-11 where it described exactly what happened to me that nite. (i hadnt read job at this point) So I knew it wasnt an angel it was a spirit...This was my question. Basically God will use his word to teach us and the OT is as valid as the new... Just remember the New Testiment gives us Grace of the Lord... He is a blanket of protection over us a covering for our failings. With the Holy Spirit comes a longing to please God that becomes nature and not just about reading and following rules. Of course we all fail and tend to look at our failure (I used to not want to pray for days after I sinned cause I was too ashamed to admit it to the Lord.) I'm glad I dont delay anymore. I read the new test for 6 years before going into the old (except psalms & proverbs my fav's) I especially love Proverbs 31 the mother of King Lemuel's description of the "perfect" wife... Doesnt sit quite right with the thoughts of modern women but I think theres something there. By reading the proverbs and Psalms we get comfort and instruction and the words for the Lord when things are real low and we cant come up with them ourselves.

 

[wisdomseeker]

hi all
mark 12,And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

John14,He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
http://www.kingjamesbible.com/B52C004.htm this is good

1st john,And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.

The commandments are for the ungodly, disobedient, it was to teach them proper behaviour.
God almight will teach you the rest.Ask in faith
Love a friend in God

 

[Ancilla]

I was just thinking about the same thing.

I haven't yet read over this thread in detail, but I will and comment. But it's weird how we keep some of the Old Testament laws and not others. And those that we don't keep it's because we are "no longer slaves to the law." But that doesn't mean there aren't laws in the Bible we aren't expected to keep. I guess I find this especially relavent because I live very close to an Orthodox Jewish community where everyone tries to keep every last one of the Old Testament laws as closely as possible.

But I was thinking about this because this time of year I really miss having Passover with my family. My parents have been putting on a Seder Supper for about twenty some years now. I'm two time zones away from my parents, and while I'll celebrate Easter with my extended family here, I don't have any family or Christian friends here who celebrate Passover. The Seder has become part of our Easter tradtion and I really miss it. And of course, it doesn't help that everytime I step into the grocery store there are big signs that say "Happy Passover" and there selling matzo and concord grape juice. But if it comes to having my own Seder at home with the Haggadah I got from the grocery store, so be it.

See, I guess for me it's not only about family tradition but it's because in the Old Testament, God really stresses the importance of not forgetting what He did for the Isrealites when he brought them out of Eygpt (the Seder being the act of remembrance), and I don't think there's anywhere in the New Testament where we're told that we no longer have to do that. Of course, I guess the reason why it was never formally adopted into the Christian tradition is because that's a commandment that was given to the Jewish people and a lot of the new testament was written for Gentiles and the idea for them was not to become Jewish.

Anyway, the bottom line is that if you've never had a Seder Supper, I think you're missing out. In later years my dad's friend who was raised Jewish brought all kinds of cool special touches. It was awesome.