The Christian Letter, Volume One: Chapter 12
“The one who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not guard His commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” (1 John 2:4). My dear brothers and sweet sisters, be excited my friends, for we are about to get to know Him in Truth and Spirit by living how He lived, lives, and will always live.
“‘Teacher, which is the great command in the Torah?’ And Yahoshuah said to him, ‘“You shall love Yahoweh your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your being, and with all your mind.” This is the first and great command. And the second is like it, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” On these two commands hang all the Torah and the Prophets.’” (Matthew 22:36-40).
These two commands, found in Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, are a symbol of The Ten Commandments. All of the Torah and the Prophets require them for support. The Torah, often translated as the Law or Instructions, has come to be viewed as restrictions on fun, but, in truth, they were given to protect, rather than prohibit, our happiness. While some of us have thrown away the Instructions, as we want to do it ourselves, the Torah is a means to know and love Him. Many of us have lost or thrown the Law away, but it is time to reclaim our right to follow the Messiah even at the cost of our reputations, or our very lives.
Is the Law really a blessing? Allow me to explain how the Torah changed my life and the life of those around me, including you, forever. My mother had a violin student that she thought I should meet. “No way!” I said. I was not going to be set up by my mother with some violin student. She tried but I would not listen to her. As I was ready to leave, still refusing to go meet her, my mother said, “Honor your mother.” I had my foot out the door. The words hit me, and I couldn’t walk away. Reluctantly I said I would—but only once. I met her, and as I thought, I didn’t really want to go out with her, nor did she with me … but her sister, on the other hand, wanted to go out with me very much.
At that moment I did not want to keep the Commandment of honoring my mother, but it was by keeping it that I have been blessed abundantly ever since. Yet, it was not just I that received a blessing: My brother later married my wife’s aforementioned sister, and has had two children. Lives would not exist. But that’s not all. I might never have learned that the Father has a Name, nor done many other studies with the Roth family, if I had not met Mark. I might never have met my good friend Mark if I had not gone to a certain youth group that Sue invited me to. I might never have met Sue, or her family who taught me how to praise, if I had not gone to a graduation I knew no one at with my soon-to-be wife, Jasmine. I might never have met her had I not met her family. I might never have started writing and working in ministry for Yahoweh had I not met her family, whom I met through Jasmine’s sister by following one Commandment. I now have an amazingly closer relationship with Yahoweh, a ministry that I love, a caring wife, a bigger family, and friends who seek the Father daily. All because I put myself aside and followed one of Yahoweh’s Commandments, even though it was years before I saw the blessing of obeying. I cannot put into ink all the blessings that have come from cherishing the Commandments. Truly, the promise of a blessed life attached to the command to honor your parents is no lie!
Looking back in my life I can trace so many blessings to His Word, but as I consider how many times I fell into painful sin simply because I was told I needn’t keep His Torah, I shudder. I was not doing anything the Bible said, even though I thought I was doing what the Bible said. What introduced me to keeping the Commandments was nothing more than action. I just kept the Commandment. Every time a new Commandment was placed before me, I considered it, and then did it. Okay, sometimes I wrestled it for a long time first, but every time I tried following the Messiah by keeping His Commandments, I fell in love with His Word, His walk, His Way. If at any point you don’t feel like walking as He walks, then I urge you to consider the questions in the previous Letter To See, To Hear, and above all: His Word pertaining to the subject at hand, as you give keeping His Commandment a chance. After all, until I kept Sabbath, it was not real to me. I, like you, had read about Sabbath many times, but it was not something I really understood, as I was not keeping it. I had not truly given Him a chance. I had not accepted His gift to me.
Yahoweh, through Moses, gave the Commandments to us. Why Moses? “And the man Mosheh was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.” (Numbers 12:3). Elohim gave the Commandments to the most humble. We, too, must humble ourselves and receive with thankfulness His Torah by action so that we do not sin. “And Mosheh said to the people, ‘Do not fear, for Elohim has come to prove you, and in order that His fear be before you, so that you do not sin.’” (Exodus 20:20).
What is the first line of the Bible, the Torah? Do you know it? Right now, say it aloud from memorization. “In the beginning, Elohim created the Heavens and the earth.” Wonderful, isn’t it? I sometimes wonder if the first chapter of Genesis should have been two, and that passage, that one verse could have been the first chapter. All of you were able to answer what the first line of the Bible is, and none of you replied with, “The Old Testament.” Yahoweh Elohim never called His Torah “Old;” in fact, He often refereed to His Word as eternal and everlasting. His Ageless Torah is not just for the Israelites, inasmuch as Corinthians was not just for the assembly in Corinth. The Commandments, personally written by the finger of Yahoweh Himself, are for all who love Him
Don’t just believe—follow—for it is written: “But someone might say, ‘You have belief, and I have works.’ Show me your belief without your works, and I shall show you my belief by my works. You believe that Elohim is one. You do well. The demons also believe—and shudder! But do you wish to know, O foolish man, that the belief without the works is dead?” (James 2:18-20).
For a long time the only reason I had ever been given for the refusal to believe in the Saviour was how Christians act, until one day when a man added, with the included abrasive words, “It’s not hard to find a Christian that’s a jerk. Their Book says to love your neighbor, but mine treats me like garbage because I’m of a different faith. Christians are supposed to honor the Sabbath, but they don’t. They don’t follow the laws in the Bible. If Christians are like that, then Christianity is not something I’d want to follow, because there is nothing to follow. If they had anything, it would show in their lives. Christians don’t have what they say they do. I hate it when a person tells me, ‘All you have to do is believe in Jesus, and you’re saved.’ Because if that was all that was needed, then the Bible would be one line on one page, and the devil himself would be saved.” … What happed to this man’s soul because of our disobedience to the Torah of Yahoweh? What happened to ours? “For not one of us lives to himself, and not one dies to himself.” (Romans 14:7).
Some have the habit of always coming forward and re-giving his or her life to Elohim every week, but we need to follow through in commitment for a lifetime by considering ourselves as a bride to be given in marriage. So many times I have seen Christians pick and choose the commands that are convenient, and obey only those, when it’s convenient. The Messiah certainly forgives, but our goal should not be to only master repentance, but to also strive for obedience in praise and honor to our Saviour.
Now someone may ask, “What about some of the Commandments you rarely hear about, such as the Law concerning what is to be done if your ox gored my ox?” You may have a different kind of ox called a car, but the teaching is still there in Exodus 21:35. Similar matters can be found in 1 Timothy 5:18. With Torah we can correct the wrongs and be at peace. Now that’s grace. Most manmade deities have no set way of worship and are more fickle than the men that made them. Yahoweh, with an amazing Grace, told us how to love Him and how to care for each other. Indeed, the two are inseparable.
“But I don’t want to be under the Law!” cry many humanists. The term legalism, though, can only apply to keeping the commands of men for a gain. Obedience is keeping the Commandments. The Torah is love for Yahoweh. It is a joy, but not all of the commandments apply to you. They all remain, but they are not all for you. There are some that are only for women, or only for children, or only for men, or only for the high priest, or only for governments, and yes, some, perhaps, even for animals. Then there are many near repeats such as forbidding sexual relations with your mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister, close relations, animals, or with the same gender. So, in truth, there are very few commandments, while America has several million laws that pertain to you. Now tell me who is under the law.
However, if a few should cry out, “This man is speaking of legalism—a false gospel!” I have this to say: If any man, or any woman, speaks against the Commandments of Elohim, they are thereby speaking against the Footsteps of Yahoshuah the Messiah. They are preaching a false gospel.
“But keep away from foolish questions, and genealogies, and strife and quarrels about the Torah, for they are unprofitable and useless.” (Titus 3:9). I will not banter on about genealogies, and the only reason I show you, my fellow servants, the arguments against His Word, is so that when the wicked one comes before you as an angel, and twists the Everlasting Word of Yahoweh by calling the Scriptures Old, you will not be deceived.
This may be a challenge to you—no—this will be a challenge to you, but I hope you give yourself time to pray and seek out His Word. We would never have forsaken the orthodox tenets of our forefathers had we not braved against man-made tradition. We would still be buying trinkets from churches for the forgiveness of our sins, and pardons for those who have passed away, if we did not accept guidance from the Word to step away from man’s traditions. Until you are able to let go of what you think is truth and truly look to see, I’m afraid you will not hear, nor understand my fear.
“And the one guarding His commands stays in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He stays in us, by the Spirit which He gave us.” (1 John 3:24).
“Blessed are those doing His commands, so that the authority shall be theirs unto the tree of life, and to enter through the gates into the city.” (Revelations 22:14). Do not live His Word as a burden, but as a blessing, for when a King speaks, those who love Him will listen and count His Word as a gracious Law. Yahoshuah showed Grace and He kept all of the Law. He then said, “Follow Me.” Will you follow? Or will you only follow what you want to see?
We have a choice: “If you guard My commands, you shall stay in My love, even as I have guarded My Father’s commands and stay in His love.” (John 15:10). We can either guard / keep the Torah, just like the Messiah guarded the Torah by keeping the Torah, or we can be rebellious. “And place their trust in Elohim, and not forget the works of El, but watch over His commands, and not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation which did not prepare its heart, whose spirit was not steadfast to El.” (Psalms 78:7-8). (Please read all of Psalms 78 to understand.) The choice is ours, and only our actions are loud enough to hear.
The translation of the Ten Commandments herein was translated from various Paleo Hebrew stones and scrolls. It took me many months to do this, and I hope dearly and pray earnestly I did His Breath a fair and respectful job. To learn more on what I speak, please read Genesis 1:1 through Revelation 22:21.
Hundreds of Laws were summed up in Ten, Ten Laws were summed up in Two, Two Law’s were summed up in One, One Law is Love; however, without all the words in the Word we would not understand what this one Law is, nor that grace was made from it. Let us, therefore, love He Who loved us first … His Way.
“Let us hear the conclusion of the entire matter: Fear Elohim and guard His commands, for this applies to all mankind!” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).
Be Blessed and be a Blessing.
Shalom
-Valentine Thalken Billingsley
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Additional Scripture References:
Deuteronomy 28:1-14, Matthew 10:28, Romans 2:21-24, and Colossians 3:1-2, Romans 10
