2 Corinthians 3:5-6 (NKJV)
5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Here we have Paul laying it out for us. In black and white we are told that our Ministry (and EVERY Christian has a Ministry) comes straight from God and not through anything we do or any amount of initials we can put after our name, and also tells us that we are to be Ministers of the New Covenant (The New Testament), not of the law (The Old Testament). This is due to the power and influence of the Holy Spirit on our lives.
And yet so many Christians, both ministers and lay people use verses from the Old Testament to condemn people. Most commonly, these verses are used to support peoples opinions on modern social issues. They hand pick, and the only ones used are the ones that support their agendas while the others are discarded.
They use selected verses from many books in the Old Testament to support their condemning views on everything from a man wearing his hair long to people being gay. And yet, after the service, they go out and enjoy a meal of steak and lobster or a pork roast, both of which are also forbidden by Leviticus.
Of course the standard response I get is from Matthew 5:17, where Jesus says that he didn’t come to destroy the law but to fulfill it. This is a very good response, but what the Lord was talking about is that He had come to fulfill the law by sacrificing himself as the last sacrifice for man. So yes, He came to fulfill the law and He did!! He fulfilled the law when he said “It Is Finished”. At the exact moment he died, the law was fulfilled and the grace flowed in. The veil that separated us from God was torn in two and we could see god for the first time!! We could have a relationship with him that we could not have before.
I do understand that those who do this are sincere in their beliefs, and I certainly am not bashing the Old Testament (following the 10 Commandments to the letter will definitely make you a fine, upstanding citizen), but I am, and will continue to, speaking out against those who use a small portion of the scripture, taken out of context, to bash anyone and everyone who does not agree with them. Sadly, it is usually these nut jobs that get the most press and give all Christians a bad name…..
In this letter written to the Church at Corinth, during a time that the Corinth Church was getting bound up in legalism and some were even questioning whether or not Paul was an Apostle of Jesus, Paul tells us that God has made us Ministers of the Spirit not the letter. The letter of the law kills, but the Spirit saves (gives life). At a time now when a lot of Churches are becoming just like the Corinth Church was at the time of Paul’s letter, we must remember that we are to be led by the Holy Spirit in what we do. We are free from the Mosaic law because of the price that Jesus paid on the cross. We no longer have to see God through a veil, we can come into a full and complete relationship with Him, because the veil was not only lifted, it was torn in half when he died…..
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