Now we come to Chapter 11, which is one of the most ignored chapters, if you ask me, by traditional Christian teachings.

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The main theme of this chapter is that even though God cut off from the Tree of Life the natural branches (the Jewish people rejecting Messiah), which allowed the wild branches (the Gentiles) to be grafted in, they need to remember that they are not supporting the root, but the root is supporting them (Romans 11:18). And if God was willing to prune the natural branches, how much more so will he be willing to prune those who were not of the tree, in the first place? Therefore, the Gentiles in Messiah should never become arrogant.

May I share something personal with you? Spending my youth and teenage years during the 60s and 70s, my experience with Christians was being called “Christ killer” and they accused Jews as being the ones who killed God (as if that was even possible!) My personal experience with traditional Christian teachings (which, sad to say, haven’t really changed) has been that the Jews are looked down upon because so many didn’t accept Yeshua when he was human, and even today, still don’t have enough sense to convert to Christianity. It is an arrogant position, thinking Christians are better than Jews because they worship Jesus, and we don’t: it is totally in opposition to what Shaul told them not to do in this chapter.

Here is another example of what Christianity has taught, regarding their affiliation with Jews: When I taught a Messianics 101 course at the messianic synagogue I attended in Philadelphia, I used to ask if they remembered the Bugs Bunny cartoon where Elmer chases Bugs up a tree, and Bugs is sitting at the far end of a branch while Elmer is on the same branch, right where it comes off the tree. He then starts to saw the branch between him and Bugs, and when he saws through, the branch that Bugs is on miraculously remains suspended in the air while the tree (and Elmer) fall down. Then I’d say this is what Christianity thinks they can do: reject the Torah, which is the Tree of Life (in Hebrew, we say Etz Chaim Hi), but still be attached to God.

Now, if that ain’t Looney Tunes, I don’t know what is!

Alright…back to Romans.

Shaul’s warnings in this chapter reminds me of the warning Moses gave the children of Israel as they were about to enter the Promised Land, reminding them that what they were to receive was not because they deserved it, but because of God’s love for his people (Deuteronomy 7:6).

Starting in Chapter 12, Shaul pleads with the Roman believers to work at changing their entire mindset, no longer conforming to what the world expects, but acting and thinking more in line with what God wants of them, even to the point of becoming (as he puts it) a living sacrifice to God. It seems that he is implying, from his previous statement about hypocrites, and now this statement about transforming themselves, that the Believers in Rome weren’t living a righteous life.

Sorry- but I have to interrupt, again.

The way these “megachurches” get so many attendees is that all they talk about is what God will do for them, and rarely, if ever, talk about what we are to do for God, except maybe to be loving to each other. That “Be a good person and love each other, and you get to go to heaven” is the sales pitch used, and so no wonder it attracts many people.

But it’s a lie- first off, even Yeshua said no one is good but God (Mark 10:18) and loving one another isn’t enough- Yeshua said even sinners do that (Luke 6:32). No- you need to do what God says to do BEFORE he will send blessings. When you read Deuteronomy 28 (the chapter known as the Blessings and Curses Chapter in the Torah) you will see that God tells us when we obey, he will bless us, and when we disobey, he will send curses (which really means he simply won’t bless us and leave us on our own in a sinful and fallen world). Note, please, the order: we obey, we get blessed, not we get blessed whether or not we obey.

OK, now that I have that off my chest, let’s get back to Romans.

Regarding how to be a living sacrifice, Shaul explains that the way we do that is not to think too highly of ourselves; rather, to use whatever gifts we have correctly and to love others, which includes those who do not love us. He gives the examples of blessing those who persecute us, of not repaying evil with evil, and to care for our enemies (again, how can I not mention how for centuries Christians have derided and persecuted Jews, just the opposite of what Shaul said they should do).

Many Christians have credited Shaul with being the originator of these godly teachings, but they are all found in the Tanakh, from Leviticus to Proverbs. And if you are thinking that it was just Shaul repeating what Yeshua said, that is correct, but where did Yeshua come up with these? That’s right- he got them from the Tanakh, as well.

Shaul continues to talk about how to love others through not judging others who are weaker in faith, and here is where another misinterpretation has led Christians to believe Shaul is saying the laws of Kashrut (Kosher laws defined in Leviticus 11) are no longer valid for Gentiles.

Chapter 14 is confusing, and (again) we run smack-dab into Shaul’s convoluted Jewish Logic. He states that there are those who eat differently: some just vegetables and others will eat everything (as we will see later, he is talking about vegetables and meat). This has been mistaught as meaning that food doesn’t matter because all those who believe in Yeshua and worship God are accepted.

Here we run into the same issue we had back in the Gospel of Mark, where Mark declares all food clean (Mark 7:19). To review what happened, Yeshua was asked why his talmidim (students, or disciples, in this case) don’t wash their hands before eating, which was a traditional man-made requirement. Yeshua tells them that it isn’t what we eat that makes us unclean, but what comes out of our heart, and at this point Mark states Yeshua declared all food clean.

But what is food to a First Century Jew? I can tell you this- it ain’t pork chops! What was considered as food to Jews at that time was only what God allowed us to eat, and so when Shaul, a Pharisee, talks about food, it is safe to assume he is talking only about what is allowed by God.

Chapter 14 has traditionally been misinterpreted to allow believers in Yeshua to eat trefe (unclean) foods; but, when you read these passages carefully, you see Shaul is talking only about vegetables and meat. He never mentions pork verse veal, or lobster verse cod- he talks about the difference between one eating only vegetables (the diet that Daniel ate) and another eating meat and vegetables. The gist of his lesson is that when there is a meal presented that has both vegetables and meat- and he is talking about a meal that is in accordance with the laws of Kashrut- and someone at the table thinks that it is a sin to eat meat, then to show your love you should eat only vegetables. And if you like vegetables, but someone else is eating both vegetables and meat, then you should have some meat, as well.

Again, even though Shaul is talking about food, this passage has nothing at all to do with Kashrut, and everything to do with not judging others regarding the strength or weakness of their faithful obedience (to the Torah). But later on, when Gentiles were reading this, they defined food as whatever is edible by human beings, and subsequently have misinterpreted this to mean that you don’t have to follow the kashrut laws if you believe in Jesus.

Shaul concludes this letter by talking about all the work he has done as minister to the Gentiles throughout Asia, and that he now wishes to come to Rome.

(As we read in Acts, he eventually made it there and was very fruitful ministering for about 2 years, but he never got out of Rome alive.)

At the end of this letter, as with many, he thanks those who have helped him and warns to be careful about false teachings (too bad that warning didn’t work) and to avoid anyone who places stumbling blocks in their way.

The next letters we will review are the ones he wrote to the Corinthians.

That’s it for now, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

This is one of Shaul’s shorter letters and was written from both Shaul and Timothy while Shaul was in Rome, awaiting trial after having appealed to the emperor to avoid being killed in ambush while being transported back to Jerusalem (Acts 23).

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The time of this letter was probably around 60-62 A.D., and in this letter Shaul is basically sending his thanks to the congregation for helping to defray his costs while he was awaiting trial.

He explains to the people how his imprisonment is a good thing because it is an example of his suffering for Messiah.

He states in 1:15-18 that there are some who preach about Messiah in Rome for good reasons, and others who do so to cause trouble for Shaul, for their own selfish desires. Now this is interesting: he goes on to say that whether they preach for selfish means or for righteous means, so long as Messiah is preached, that is a good thing.

Let me go off on tangent for a moment: there are many believers who deny the validity of Christians celebrating Easter or Christmas because those holidays fall on the same days as pagan holidays did; in fact, Easter is still called that, even though Easter is the English pronunciation of the name of a pagan fertility goddess. They state, and they may be correct in doing so, that celebrating those holidays are ungodly, even though the holidays now have nothing to do with the pagan gods, but rather to celebrate and proclaim Messiah Yeshua.

To my way of thinking, which now I can say agrees with Shaul’s statement in this letter, what the holidays used to be doesn’t matter because now they are proclaiming Messiah, and any time we proclaim the Messiah it is a good thing.

Continuing his letter, Shaul states he is confident that whatever happens will be good, and to live is for the messiah and to die is gain, in that he would rather be with the messiah, but for the sake of the people who he leads, he will stay alive.

As he begins to close the letter, he encourages the congregation to be like-minded, not to argue, and to show the same humility that the Messiah showed.

Shaul says he wants to send Timothy to them and will be sending Epaphroditus, who had come to Shaul with the support from the Philippians but caught ill and is now well enough to go back, being very homesick.

Shaul sends a warning against being forced into undergoing b’rit milah (circumcision) because this is what many of the Jews were forcing the Gentile believers to do, stating that it was necessary to be saved, even though they have accepted Yeshua. Since this is mentioned in a number of Shaul’s letters, it seems to have been an issue throughout the Middle East and Asia where Shaul was ministering to Gentiles. He explains that no one can receive righteousness through acts of the flesh, but through the messiah, Yeshua.

As he finishes, we come to the real reason he sent this letter, which is to address the interpersonal problems the congregation was having. Here is where he is finally getting to the point of this letter- the managerial directives that the members of the congregation needed to be reminded of so that they would stay on track.

He tells them to follow in his example, and then chides (in a nice way) two women, Euodia and Syntyche, for disagreeing, which must have been so damaging to the congregation that it was bad enough to reach Shaul’s ears, all the way in Rome.

He finishes by thanking them for being so helpful and tells them he has learned to be content in all situations, whether with or without necessities.

I see a bit of a guilt trip being laid on them, as Shaul does much “guilt-tripping” in so many of his letters, although you have to look carefully at how he writes to people to pick-up on it. For instance, here he states how the congregation had been the only ones to help him, and how he has learned to be content in all situations, then states in 4:17 that he is not looking for a gift, but rather he is asking them for something that will be credited to their account.

Maybe it’s just me, but that sounds like a Jewish guilt trip (being Jewish, I can recognize these things a mile away) because he says he doesn’t need anything and that he is content in all things, BUT if they do send something, he will credit it to their account. If he is content in all things, why even mention sending anything?

This letter is not so much a managerial concern as with many of the other letters, and the only problem they were having that we see here is the need to stand firm regarding circumcision, and for the two ladies to stop arguing with each other.

That’s it for this letter; the next time we will see what the problems were that Shaul had to address in the congregation that was in Colossus.

Until then, l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

This is the first of two letters written by Shaul addressing problems that the community of believers was having in the town of Corinth. Those problems included interpersonal relationship issues, pridefulness with regard to which apostle they thought they should listen to, and sexual perversity within the congregation. It appears from this letter that these issues were not being handled, and the result was that this congregation membership was generally falling from faith.

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This letter, as with all the letters Shaul wrote to the congregations he formed (that made it into the New Covenant) is not a prophetic warning or a direct-from-God message; rather, it is clearly a chiding of the people for having gone so far astray from the lessons Shaul first taught them when he organized that congregation. If anything, it is a letter like one would receive in a job as a First Warning, explaining what one has been doing that is not satisfactory and stating what actions are needed to correct the poor performance.

As always, Shaul starts off with a compassionate and loving greeting to the congregation, stating how he is so thankful for them.

Then he rips right into them, starting off with an appeal for them to get together and end the dissension and division within their congregation. Apparently, there are loyalties to different human teachers instead of loyalty to God.

Off topic a bit, the problem in Corinth was not so far from what happened within Judaism, as one of the famous “feuds” of our history is that between the school of Hillel and the school of Shammai, two famous and well-respected Rabbis who had differing opinions about the meanings within the Torah, as well as their interpretations of what was correct, vis-a-vis, Halacha (literally, the Walk, which is the Talmudic instructions for everyday activities and worship).

Back to the Corinthians….

Shaul tells the Corinthian believers that wisdom comes from spiritual maturity and from God’s spirit. He goes on to tell them that when he was there he gave them milk, not solid food- you may recall I stated in the introduction that Shaul did not try to convert people overnight, but slowly. Here he confirms this policy, as he tells the Corinthians how he only gave them “baby food”, and even states they are “infants in Messiah” (1 Cor. 3:1). He goes on to say they still aren’t ready for the meat. He even says that some of them have become arrogant, and he asks if he should come to them with a whip or in love?

Chapter 5 begins with Shaul berating them all for not expelling one of their brothers who is living with his father’s wife (based on how this is stated, I assume the woman was the man’s stepmother). Now, to make sure we understand this, I am not talking about a son living in his mom’s basement. No! This reference is that the son is having intimate relations with his mother: a real Oedipus. And despite this sin, which Shaul points out is even wrong for the pagans, the congregation has not done anything about it.

Another problem he addresses is that they are suing each other, instead of handling their problems as they should: together and within their own congregation. Chapters 5 and 6 deal with these two issues.

Chapter 7 talks about marriage, celibacy, and a well-known phrase- being unevenly yoked.

Here we have an interesting point: Shaul says in 1st Cor. 7:10 that he gives a command and specifies this is not his command but the Lord’s, in saying that divorce is not allowed and if someone does divorce, then they need to stay celibate or reconcile with their spouse. Then, in 1st Cor. 7:12, he states that it is his opinion, not the Lord’s, that in an unevenly yoked marriage if the unbeliever wants to leave, that’s OK, but the believer must not initiate a divorce.

Because Shaul specifically separates what he is saying from what people may think he is hearing from God, I believe this to be definitive proof that his letters are not from God, but from himself. I say that because he separated what he says from what God says, and so it is obvious- at least, to me- that unless Shaul specifically states what he is saying is from God, then he is speaking for himself.

Oh, yes, no doubt that at some times, in some letters, he was given divine wisdom, but that is not a direct command from God.

Shaul seems to me to be someone who really hates marriage. His advice in Chapter 7 is for women to remain virgins and men to not marry, as marriage not only has many problems, but also can separate people from God in that being married will, by necessity, cause them to be concerned with the ways of the world, such as thinking more of providing for the family than worship, getting along with people instead of doing as God said to do, etc.

If you ask me, Shaul had some issues, himself. And this argument against marriage is against what God said we should be doing from the very beginning: to be fruitful and multiply.

Chapter 9 is a conundrum to me: Shaul states that it is acceptable to eat meat sacrificed to idols so long as you are spiritually mature enough to know it won’t separate you from God because the false gods are nothing. Yet, he ends up saying that when it comes down to it, since there are so many who are spiritually weak, and think it is a sin to eat food sacrificed to idols, then he will not eat any meat, at all, just to make sure he is not causing one of these weaker people to stumble into sin.

You may ask, since eating meat sacrificed to idols was one of the four “No-No’s” the Elders in Jerusalem included in their letter to the Gentiles (Acts 15), why is Shaul going against the Elders? According to the NIV Study Bible, the Council in Jerusalem existed from 50-51 AD, but this letter to the Corinthians was written around 54-55 AD, so Shaul certainly should have known about that letter. This is so confusing to me: why would Shaul go against the Elders? I wish I knew!

Shaul starts Chapter 9 with another one of his “Look at me” conversations. He states how he neglected many of the rights he has being an apostle of Yeshua. He goes on to say that he has always worked for himself and not depended on any of the congregation to support him, even though the Torah itself says not to muzzle the ox when it is grinding out the grain- in other words, the worker deserves his wages. He actually would rather die than be deprived of boasting about how he is self-sufficient, waiving, so to speak, his rights to be supported. This is something Shaul does often in his letters- he constantly kvetches about how he has suffered for his loved congregations, how he hasn’t been a burden to them, and that he is suffering so as an example to them how they should be.

You know what it sounds like to me? It sounds like a guilt trip.

Now we come to a very important statement by Shaul, one which helps us to understand the foundation of his approach to the Gentiles he was converting to a righteous form of worship and lifestyle, through acceptance of Yeshua as their Messiah; and consequently, why he has been so misunderstood.

In Chapter 9, verses 19 through 23, he states that he approaches everyone he is trying to get to accept Yeshua as the Messiah in a way they will understand. To put it plainly, he is saying that he plays to his audience. To the Jews, he speaks as a Jew, and to the Gentiles he speaks as a Gentile (he was, after all, a Roman citizen.) He concludes with telling us why he was such a successful missionary: his secret to reaching people is that he “becomes all things to all men in order that he can get the word of God out to everyone.”

This is important to understand because it is, I believe, the very crux of the problem which has caused so many to misunderstand Shaul’s letters. He doesn’t have a single approach to everyone, but rather different approaches to different people, speaking in a manner they will be familiar and comfortable with, in order to get a singular message across: that message being Yeshua is the Messiah, God is the one and only true God, and the only way to receive salvation and eternal life is to accept Yeshua as the Messiah and live a Torah observant life, as best as they can.

For the Jew, their lifestyle will not change, only their understanding of the Torah (Yeshua taught us the deeper, spiritual meaning and not just the plain language text); for the Gentile, it will mean a paradigm shift in lifestyle, so they do not have to become “Jews” overnight, but only at a pace they can handle.

(That is why he is telling these Corinthian believers that they are still babies in Messiah and being fed milk instead of meat.)

Shaul goes on to chide them some more because of their eating at services, specifically about how they do not share the food to ensure that everyone gets a part of the meal. He says it is wrong for them to eat in cliques, the result, no doubt, of the problem he pointed out earlier regarding different loyalties. Their prayer services are improper, and the eating of food and drinking of intoxicating liquor is wrong. He tells them that anyone who eats or drinks in a manner unworthy of the Lord is sinning. He ends up saying if they can’t wait for everyone to eat at the same time, then they should eat something at home before they come to services, so they won’t be so hungry.

He goes on to talk about spiritual gifts, and how no one gift is really more important than another, all being like parts of the body working together. But the most valuable gift is love. He states that the most important things are faith, hope, and love, and that love is the greatest of all. And as for speaking in tongues (the fancy term for this is Glossolalia), anyone who speaks in tongues should be silent unless there is someone to interpret what they are saying, which would be by the spirit of God. I can tell you that in my experience this is one of the most ignored instructions, having been in multiple congregations where people just mutter out loud, incoherently, not edifying anyone but appearing to be oh-so-spiritual.

Shaul finds that there were so many different opinions floating around about the End Days (in Hebrew, Acharit HaYamim) that he repeats his lessons about the resurrection of Yeshua, what will happen to us, and about what the resurrected body will look like.

He finishes this first letter with a plea for contributions to the work he is doing for other congregations, relating how other congregations have already helped. He says he wants to visit, but not for just a short visit and hopes to do so soon, but now he is busy in Ephesus (you can read how busy he was in Acts 18).

Next, we will see how well the people listened to him in his second letter to them, written less than a year later.

I hope to see you then, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

This is one of the Epistles that many modern-day scholars believe was not written by Shaul.

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It was written around 62 A.D., which is the time when Shaul was imprisoned in Rome (although it was more like house arrest), to the Gentile believers in Ephesus, as well as any Jewish believers who may have been there. Ephesus was located in what today we call Turkey.

You may recall that when Shaul was first in Ephesus (Acts 19) there was a silversmith named Demitrius who made money creating idols of the false gods, and when he heard how Shaul had been turning so many away from idol worship, he started a riot.

Now, whoever wrote this to the congregation did so to help them stay on track. It seems he concentrated on telling them to remain humble and to be more loving towards each other. As with all the letters we know Shaul did write, this one begins with praising God and Yeshua, then turns to the congregation.

In the very beginning the writer opens up a can of worms for future religions in that he states there are those chosen for salvation and others who are not. This is a clear statement for Predestination, which he never really identifies in any of his other letters so absolutely.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons the scholars think he did not write this letter?

He identifies Satan as the power of the air (today nearly all communication is sent through the air. Hmmmm….) and is the spirit of disobedience. He reminds the Ephesian believers that before they accepted Yeshua they were dead, meaning that their sinful lives would result in death and not eternal life.

To explain how they were dead before, but now alive in Yeshua, the writer uses the example of the Torah creating a barrier between the Gentiles and the Jews, but Yeshua, through his sacrifice, destroyed that barrier by abolishing it.

This has been misunderstood to mean the Torah is not applicable to Gentiles who believe in Yeshua. That could never be something Shaul, a life-long Pharisee and life-long Torah observant man, would ever preach. In the letters we know he wrote, he allows that the Gentile believers should learn the Torah slowly, at a pace they can handle, but never comes out and says, directly, that they don’t have to obey the Torah.

One thing you need to understand is that if the Messiah Yeshua, the Son of God, had ever taught or preached anything other than obedience to his father’s commandments in the Torah, that would have made him a rebellious son and a sinner. As such, he could not have been the sinless lamb whose sacrifice would be accepted.

But we know he was raised from the dead, so that proves his sacrifice was accepted, which means he was not a sinner, which means he did not teach against the Torah- ever!

Back to the letter.

The writer pleads with the congregation in Ephesus to be humble, loving, and to strengthen their faith so they will not be fooled by the craftiness of men. Sadly, that seems to be exactly what has happened throughout the last two millennia, with many different men (and in some cases, women) craftily taking people from one Christian belief system into a different system of beliefs, ceremonies, rules, holidays, and tenets, all which they created on their own.

The writer warns against sexual immorality, telling them that they have thrown off their old selves and taken on new ones, so they should not give the Devil a foothold.

Obviously, all these warnings and admonitions, just as with the other letters Shaul wrote to the other congregations, are specifically addressing issues that existed within the congregation.

As I have said, these letters are managerial directives.

The best part of this letter is Ephesians 6:14, where we are told about the Armor of God that is to be worn every day:

• Belt of truth
• Breastplate of righteousness
• Feet wearing the sandals of peace
• Shield of faith (to put out the flaming arrows of the Enemy)
• Helmet of salvation, and
• Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God (Torah)
  (That’s good news for me- I was on the Varsity Fencing Team in High School)

The writer ends this as Shaul would, greeting those in the area and asking for prayer for the saints, and for himself.

To review, the main issues with this letter are the introduction of the idea of predestination and that Yeshua’s death abolished the Torah. In no other letters does Shaul indicate that the Torah is invalid or done away with, nor does he indicate that salvation is not available to anyone, which is the opposite of the idea of Predestination. When we examine this letter closely against the letters we know Shaul wrote, we can see not only differences in style of writing, but in the messages it sends.

The next letter will be the one written to the Philippians.

Until then, l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

This is one of the earlier letters written by Shaul, which he wrote to the Gentile Believers who lived in the Roman province of Galatia, located in a central part of (what is today) Turkey. This was written around 48 AD.

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The problem this congregation was having dealt with the Jewish population insisting that these neophyte Gentile believers had to make a complete conversion to Judaism, starting with receiving B’rit Milah (circumcision, also called a “bris”).

Shaul starts off this letter by qualifying his position as an apostle for Yeshua, reviewing the revelation he received on the road to Damascus (Acts 9) and also how he had been accepted by the Elders on the Council in Jerusalem as a legitimate apostle, endorsing (as he calls it) the gospel he preaches.

He even goes as far as to relate when he went against Kefa (Peter), who Shaul accused of being a hypocrite. He relates that Kefa would eat with Gentiles when there weren’t any Jews around, but when the believing Jews were there, he ate only with them, excluding the Gentiles.

In Chapter 2, from verse 15 through 21, Shaul explains how he came to realize that he could never live in accordance with the Torah, and as such the law did him no good as far as receiving salvation. He said he died to the law when he came to realize that faith in Yeshua was the only way to receive salvation. He said being justified in faith to Yeshua is the only way.

This statement has been totally misunderstood, and misused, to justify that Gentiles do not have to obey the Torah. The issue Shaul talks of (as he covered briefly in his letter to the Romans) is “legalism”- the idea that one must be in perfect accordance with the laws in the Torah to be saved.

When you think about it, no one, believer or not, can be justified by faith, alone. There must be some level of adherence to the commandments God gave regarding worship and treatment of others. If Shaul is teaching faith without obedience, then isn’t he teaching anarchy?

The Torah says not to kill, not to commit adultery, to honor father and mother, to be humane to animals, which Holy Days God requires us to celebrate, and many, many other things that form a way of life. Judaism isn’t just a religion: it is a total lifestyle, shaping not just the individual but the entire nation!

It is inconceivable that anyone preaching a gospel of love would also preach a life of lawlessness, which would be all that one could have if the Torah was ignored.

Do you recall the drash (parable) Yeshua gave about the seed being sown (Mark 4)? Some that fell on good soil started to take root but was choked by the weeds growing with it. This is the issue Shaul was facing in Galatia; the external pressure being placed on the neophyte believers was “choking” their faith, causing them to follow a performance-based salvation (legalism) instead of a faith-based salvation.

Shaul reminded the Galatians that Abraham was found righteous by reason of his faith, long before the law (Torah) was given, therefor obedience to the law is not going to get anyone saved. This is the crux of his discussion in this letter- he didn’t go into how to use the law properly, only that to obey the Torah to earn salvation is useless.

For the record: God told Isaac that he will make the same promise to Isaac that he gave Abraham because Abraham did all that God told him to do. (Genesis 26:4-5)

The idea Shaul is trying to get across to the Galatians (who, at one point, he actually calls “foolish” and later asks them why they listen to others) is that the law was given to be a sort of guardian, keeping God-fearing people (before Yeshua came) under a system of laws which defined the difference between sin and righteousness. Shaul even goes as far as to say that before we had the Torah, there was no sin because there was no law identifying what is sin.

Shaul makes some excellent points in this letter, such as in Chapter 3, he states that being in the body of the Messiah means we are all the same- there is neither Jew nor Greek, free nor slave, male nor female- all are one in the body of Messiah.

Of course, he is talking figuratively.

Another important lesson is that it is fine to be zealous for a cause, so long as the purpose is a good one (Galatians 4:18). But the purpose of the Galatian Jews telling these Gentiles they had to be circumcised to be saved was not good because their purpose, which may have been meant to be helpful, was (in fact) undermining Shaul’s authority and teachings and bringing the new believers back to a religion based on obedience, which has been translated in most Bibles as being “under the law”. This is one of the reasons that people have misinterpreted this to mean obedience to Torah is wrong for Gentiles.

One of the well-known lessons from this letter is Shaul’s definition of the Fruits of the Spirit, which is what we are supposed to live by. Those fruits are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

The purpose of this letter was never to be a polemic against the law, but rather to recommit these confused people to faithful obedience to Torah, which is what Shaul preached to them about being one with the Messiah. He said being circumcised or not makes no difference with regard to salvation through Messiah, and that the ones telling them they must be circumcised are only trying to bring them back under the system of performance-based salvation, which Judaism has lived under for centuries.

Shaul never meant for the Galatians, or anybody accepting Yeshua as their messiah, to ignore the Torah or any of the laws: he only wants to make sure that the reason people choose to be obedient to the Torah is done from the faithful desire to please God, and NOT to “earn points” towards salvation.

Search as diligently as you can, and you will not find anywhere, in any of the letters Shaul wrote, any statement that those who are in Messiah can ignore God’s laws or reject the Torah. On the other hand, neither has he outrightly stated that they must obey the Torah. I believe this is because there was never a question of whether or not to obey the laws, only a question of WHY to obey the laws.

At the end of this letter Shaul says (Galatians 6:16), “Peace and mercy to all who obey this rule (i.e., his teachings about circumcision and faith), even to the Israel of God”. The term “Israel of God” is confusing- who is that, exactly? Isn’t there just the one Israel, the Jewish people? Can there be a different “Israel”, an Israel of people who aren’t Jews?

This confusion has given birth to the ridiculous and blasphemous belief called Replacement Theology, which states that because the Jews rejected Yeshua, God has rejected the Jews as his chosen people and Born-Again Christians are now the chosen people of God, the very “Israel of God” Shaul mentioned.

Boy oh boy, would I love to show how wrong that is, but it will have to wait for another time.

The next letter we will analyze is to the congregation in Ephesus, which (if you recall from Acts) was not one of Shaul’s favorite places to be and gave him quite a lot of tsouris.

That’s it for now, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

The Epistles are the letters found in the New Covenant that were written by the Jewish Apostles to the communities of believers in Yeshua, the Messiah. Most were written to Gentile converts to this new sect of Judaism, called “The Way” (much later redesignated as Christianity), as well as the Jewish believers in Messiah who worshipped with them. The two exceptions are “Hebrews” and “Jude”, which were written exclusively to Jewish believers.

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The purpose of these letters was to help these neophyte believers maintain a proper form of worship and to keep them walking a straight line on the path to salvation by reinforcing the lessons they were first given and help them to overcome external forces that were weakening their faith and obedience to God’s commandments.

The purpose of this study is to remove these letters from the heavenly realm which Christianity has placed them into, and bring them back down to earth, where they belong, by demonstrating they are not God-breathed scripture on the same spiritual level as the Torah or the writings of the Prophets; rather, I intend to show that they are nothing more than managerial instructions to communities who were losing their way along the path to salvation through outside influences, as well as inter-personal issues within the congregations (there were no “churches” at that time).

Yes, they did refer to God-breathed scripture, but referring to scripture does not make something scripture, itself.

Of the 21 Epistles, it has traditionally been believed that 13 of them were written by Shaul (Paul), but recently scholars believe he only wrote 7 of them (Romans, Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Philemon, Philippians, and 1 Thessalonians.) The remaining epistles accredited to Shaul are believed to be (what is called) “pseudo-Pauline” letters, with some written by an unknown author, and others (maybe) by a secretary of Shaul with his input or based on notes he may have made.

With regard to these epistles, especially the ones written by Shaul, as we go through them you need to understand that the proper way to interpret these messages is to take all things in their proper context, validate them hermeneutically with the rest of the Bible, and use the proper cultural understanding of the words, phrases, and idioms prevalent at that time.

Shaul was a Pharisee, a “Jews’ Jew”, and he never converted to any other religion or belief system than the one he was trained to know by his mentor, the great Rabbi Gamaliel. The only thing that changed with Shaul on his way to Damascus, when he received a vision of the Messiah (Acts 9), was that he stopped rejecting Yeshua as the Messiah and believed he was, truly, the anointed one of God who’s coming was announced in the Tanakh. From that time on, his purpose for living changed from persecuting followers of Yeshua to making more of them.

When Shaul wrote his letters, he used what I call “Jewish Logic”. Being Jewish, myself, I am very familiar with the way we debate a point, and we see this very clearly and often in the way Shaul writes his letters. I often recommend that the best way to understand what he is saying is with each paragraph, read the first couple of sentences and then the last couple of sentences, and ignore the middle. He tends to expound a little more than most people can follow, and if you stick with the first and last couple of sentences in each paragraph, you will probably get the gist of his meaning much easier.

You see, a Jew will never tell you what something is until he has told you everything it is not. For example, explaining that robbing people is wrong:

If not a law, then I could take what I wanted to at will, and there would be no sin to what I did. I could be forgiven for doing so, since it is not against a law. I could even be congratulated for being a good robber.
But there is a law, so I can’t rob people.

Why not just say robbery is against the law?

Another factor is that Shaul knew what he was trying to “sell” (yes, like it or not, missionary work is a sales job) was a difficult product to push to his chosen market. To the Jews, at least they already were living (for the most part) a Torah observant lifestyle, so to them all he had to do was prove that Yeshua was the Messiah, the one that every Jew was waiting to arrive.

But, with the Gentiles, it was a totally different story.

They were living a hedonistic, drunken, and sexually perverse lifestyle, i.e., having a really good time, and that was how they worshiped their pagan gods. Now, here comes this little Jewish tent maker from Tarsus, and he is telling them to give up all the fun they’re having and live a righteous life of self-control so that when they die, they will be rewarded with eternal life and joy.

Okay, the eternal part sounds like something I would want, but giving up what I have been enjoying all my life for the unsubstantiated promise of an afterlife? From an invisible God? Who sent a son who isn’t even here?

I was in Sales for a long time, and you can take it from me- that’s a tough sell!

So, what he did (as we will see when we analyze these letters) was to bring these pagans along a path to righteousness slowly- a step at a time. The letter written to the neophyte believers (Acts 15) clearly indicates that the Elders in Jerusalem agreed to this process, in that they only required four things as an immediate change in lifestyle and worship, stating that the laws of Moses would be heard in the synagogue every Shabbat. Unquestionably, they were expecting that the Gentiles accepting Yeshua as their Messiah would, eventually, be living a Jewish lifestyle.

As we examine the letters Shaul sent to the different communities of believers (what we would call in Hebrew a Kehillat), we will see this pattern over and over, which is (I believe) one of the main reasons that they have been so terribly misunderstood. By the end of the First Century, when the leaders of what had become Christianity were almost exclusively Gentile, they could not properly interpret Shaul’s meaning. They mistook his negative side of the argument as his conclusion, which will become easier for you to understand as we go through this teaching.

Besides this, there were political influences that made these Gentile believers afraid to be associated with the Jewish population, which was a major factor in their separating themselves from a “Jewish” form of worship. But that is for another study.

We will take a look at each letter in detail and the order in which they appear in the New Covenant. We will discuss who wrote it, to whom it was written, and what the writer wanted it to accomplish.

My source document for the information regarding who wrote the letters, when, and to whom is the “Quest Study Bible” (NIV version) and Wikipedia; any other reference material I may use will be annotated in the lesson.

I will start this teachings series on the next posting; if you are not already a subscriber, I would ask that you do so now, “like” this post, click on Notifications and that little bell so you will be notified the next time I post. Please share this lesson with everyone you know so they also have a chance to learn.

If you miss anything, you will find each lesson on my ministry website (messianicmoment.com) under the BLOG tab, in the Teaching Series subgroup.

That’s it for now, so until next time: l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!