Concerning the “contradictions” of the apostle Paul

When we analyze the apostle Paul’s relationship to the Commandments of Elohim, it is worth starting from the words spoken by another apostle who from the outset drew our attention to the problem of the erroneous interpretation that the people make from the statements of his colleague. Let us therefore read what Peter tells us concerning Paul in his second epistle in chapter 2 verses 15 to 16:

Bear in mind that our Yahuwah’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that Elohim gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. 2Peter 3:15-16

Chaos reigns in the Church due to certain statements of Paul that are indeed very difficult to interpret. This is what we will try to remedy with these two following teachings.

If we really want to be honest, everyone may have noticed at least once in their life that Paul seems to be in total contradiction, both with the Old Testament, with Yahushua’s statements, and even with his own.

However, we must agree on one fundamental truth:

There is NO and CANNOT be any contradiction

in those writings which were inspired by the Holy Spirit of Elohim and preserved by the same Spirit during the processes which men commonly call canonization.

From now on, we must no longer run away from what seems difficult to us, even withdraw what is good then to sweep the rest under the carpet. We should rather ask persistently that Ruach HaKodesh enlighten us and give us the answers to these cardinal questions.

Jews and Christians agree on one essential thing concerning the character of Paul. According to both parties:

Paul is the one who “canceled” the Law.

This is considered sacrilege in the eyes of the Jews and an ultimate blessing for the Greeks.

On one side – the Jews – considers it a scandal that someone should claim that the law is no longer an aim to be achieved and that the main task of man is not to keep it. On the other side, the Nations which were originally outlaws when they did not yet know Yahushua HaMashiah, always seek to benefit only from the positive sides of the Alliances and neglect what seems to them to be difficult or unpleasant.

Paul stood between these two extremist and erroneous perceptions of what our relationship with Elohim should be. It is in this state of spiritual middle ground that we should all be like Paul. He warned that we refrain from following the spirit of the Pharisees who bet everything on the Law and the works that flow from it, so as not to trample the sacrifice of the Lamb of Elohim.

At the time when most of the first disciples were newly converted Jews straight out of traditional Judaism, the detachment and purification from Babylonian Judaism had not yet been fully accomplished. It was not yet entirely clear to them what the difference was between the laws added by the “Babylonian wises” and those disclosed to Moses by Yahuwah himself.

But the problem is far from being that simple. Because the original Commandments can also be approached in two different manners. The original Law can be interpreted Pharisaically and not spiritually. When we obey the Father’s Word in order to obtain retribution and avoid punishment, we do so only out of self-love. But we can also obey our Father’s will out of love for Him without expecting any reward from Him, but just “to please Him”. It is this form of obedience that comes from pure and unconditional love that is the right path. It is when his perfect Son lives in our hearts and directs us from within which is the sign that the Commandments have been engraved and fulfilled within us.

The first attitude is self-righteous, that is to say formal, on the basis of mutual concessions, as in a contract between two business partners. Not by faith and heart, but by reason, not by love of Yahuwah, but by fear of him, as we can mainly see it today in religions like Islam where believers are scared to death of their god who they are serving as slaves rather than sons.

We are all to be sons of Elohim through the Ruach HaKodesh, when the Spirit of the Son Yahushua fills up our hearts to rule from within.

Thus the Messiah applies the Law in us, without we having to make the effort to respect it. It simply starts to work by itself inside of us, as if by instinct.

Paul therefore attacks both false Judaism, which is fundamentally human, but he also goes against this kind fulfillment of the original Law which is based on the effort of man wanting to perfect himself. This human effort is futile and harmful. Both condition lead to death.

Why does Paul contradict Yahushua? “We are no longer under the law” vs. “Not a iota will pass from the law…”?

Let’s start from a fundamental principle that we must apply in all circumstances:

If there is a contradiction between the words of Yeshua and those of any other character in the Bible, the standard is ALWAYS what Yahushua says.

If we don’t understand, let’s not cling to what is most sympathetic to us or what theologians have put in our heads over the centuries. Until we are wise and spiritually mature enough to understand Paul’s words which are indeed often very difficult to understand, we must hold very firmly and exclusively to the word of Yahushua and act accordingly, for no evil can result from this.

Then, when we reach the level of maturity and sufficient obedience, we realize that ultimately

Paul never contradicted Yahushua

The big difference between them was that unlike Yahushua’s message, Paul’s message was primarily aimed to people who were already born again and were of very different spiritual ages and states. Yahushua was in a “simpler” situation one might say, since everyone was on the same spiritual level and no one had yet been born again and received the Holy Spirit.

Law begets death

The law is a dangerous weapon like a knife. With it you can kill, mutilate and injure if it is considered as a simple letter, but it can also be used to feed, to cut tumors and gangrene, even to defend oneself, in a word to maintain and preserve Life, if it is lived in the Spirit.

The letter kills and the Spirit gives life.

2 Corinthians 3:6

And if you do not learn from the Father how to use it, you will harm yourself and others. And if you reject it out of fear or cowardness, the law itself is ultimately going to judge you.

The Law/Commandments is the Word, and the Word became flesh. He who does not die as an old man and does not rise again as a new creation in Yeshua, in the Word, in the Living Law, will be overtaken by the judgment of Yahushua at his return.

The question of the weak

The root of the all that seems contradictory in what Paul says, is the concept of weakness. He puts all laws and commandments of Elohim to the background for the weak, for those who are still children in spirit so that we do not burden them with things that do not yet concern them. The subjects which concern the elder ones must not be treated in the ears of the youngests so that no false custom, dogma and other tradition comes to veil the heart of the children. If they would forced themselves to do things instead of letting the Messiah shape them from within, it would only lead them away from the Spirit of the Messiah.

Because the law of LIFE and LOVE prevails over all others.

If a law has been re-established in us and which is not yet in our neighbour, let us avoid teaching them to obey it, because instead of leading them forward on the path of sanctification, we would put them again under the curse of the law again. Thus their relation to the law would be reduce to the letter, to formalities, to self-righteousness, in a word, to religiosity. We would make them Pharisees again and not disciples capable of discerning by themselves through the Spirit of what they should think and act in a given situation and a given moment in their journey. They would end up obeying the decrees in the hope of obtaining more rewards and blessings and would miss the conduct of the Ruach HaKodesh who in turn would end up momentarily withdrawing from them for lack of submission to Him.

The commandments have been fulfilled in me when I no longer obey them by constraint, but rather instinctively, without thinking about it and even by deeply desiring to fulfill them and not even being able to imagine doing otherwise.

It is good to be able to resist temptation. But if the problem is not solved at the level of the spirit and we obey the will of Elohim only at the cost of internal struggles, sooner or later big problems will arise in our spiritual life. What I still have to resist when I am already born again is a sin from which I am not free yet. It is therefore necessary to get rid of it, to clean it so that the power of the Messiah does not stop progressing in me. This mechanism is nothing more than the

PROCESS OF SANCTIFICATION

Sin is the root of all disorder and all hindrances. Only the law can expose sin. And Yahushua can free us from sin by applying the Commandments. Because He is High Priest who executes judgment against sin in our hearts – on the level of our minds and spirit.

We are the Temples of His Spirit and He ministers in us as the High Priest according to the order of Melkishedek and according to all the Commandments concerning the High Priests which have long since been disclosed in the Torah. Instead of calves, heifers, goats and other animals, he burns our remaining sins through the execution of the Law at the spiritual level.

This process can manifest itself at the level of our relations with our environment in the visible world: relations die, others revive or arise; links are broken, others strengthened; hostile people suddenly change their attitude towards us; our living conditions stabilize or even improve; etc. But I am thinking here above all of the internal problems of our person which, like obstacles, prevent us from moving forward.

At the root of all sin is the breaking of a law. In the long run this involves death if we do not detach ourselves from sin, but can also beget life if the Spirit of Messiah frees us from it. It is by letting Yahushua apply the sentence against sin that is in me that he frees me from it at the same time. So it is He, Yahushua, who takes the place of sin in my heart so that His Law will henceforth be applied in and through me. I will thus obey the order given, because it is living inside of me and acts by itself, without effort, like breath that gives life.

As we have discussed in several other writings, the Law, as we read in the 10 Words, or Commandments, are promises, they were not written in the imperative mode in the original Hebrew, but in the future tense: ( if He lives in us and we live in Him), then we will not steal, kill, cheat, fornicate…, because we will no longer want to. This is when we start to understand what Yeshua said that even thinking about sin is sin in itself and that is the level where He wants to free us from it.

The weak need milk. He needs to experience and see Grace, to hear the Gospel, to experience deliverance, healing, so that his faith is strengthened. Then he will gradually begin to hunger for more and more solid food. In addition to the 5 fundamental laws that Paul lists for us in Acts 15:29 (drinking of blood, drowning animals, fornication, etc.) that everyone must apply from the start, sooner or later

you must have the curiosity to learn what the Word contains including the commandments found in the 5 books of Moses.

If we want to know the essence of the Messiah more and more in depth, then we must let this process begin.

And while masses of teachers preach the denial of the law, still greater masses of believers are deprived of this curiosity and the ability to go in search of solid food by themselves, not through teachers, but independently, as spiritual adults, through the direct guidance and teaching of the Ruach HaKodesh. When, according to the promise, we no longer teach one another (Jeremiah 31:33 and Hebrew 8:11).

We all have to reach this level of spiritual maturity thus letting the Ruach HaKodesh fulfilling this promise in us and stop teaching our own sipirtual children when they also become adults like us. Just as in the case of a physical family. We are not the same parents for our adult children than we were when they were children. Once they grow up, we must at best standing before them as witnesses and examples.

Let us therefore not forbid anyone to eat rabbit or pig, to celebrate Sunday and Christmas, or to give foreign names to the Eternal, as long as these people do it with a pure heart and that they are still immature in spirit, for we would offend them. Because if they would listened to us and returned to the originals, to what is holy, but it is not Ruach HaKodesh who restores these questions in their hearts and at the appropriate time, but me and at the level of their intellect, then I would have worked in vain.

Because it is possible to be saved even by drowning in pork, if the Savior catches us in time and we say yes to him. No one should try to force or accuse anyone who, out of purity of heart, does not yet comply with a decree that has already become important and natural for us.

But if you are no longer part of the weaks, because you are already an adult or at least mature enough to move on to more serious things, then stop playing the child and pretending not to be concerned with all the Word of Elohim. Because if you keep shying away and refusing to know and obey the law, you’ll end up in big trouble.

From a certain age, we can also be beaten with sticks if we continue our childishness.

In our ministry, we are not to play little christs judging the weak, but to present the merciful Yahushua to them. Because the time for the return of the Messiah who judges has not yet arrived. The time of Grace is still going on, but although the Law remains eternal and valid. Anyone who preaches otherwise is preaching a foreign gospel. The fact is that the Law is applied by Ruach HaKodesh in the life of each individual, according to their spiritual age.

Returning to Torah is an act of suicide in itself. But not coming back to it is just as suicidal. Returning to the Old Testament by bypassing Shavuot/Pentecost leads to death. We have to understand that the Torah must be engraved in us in the mind and the heart through Ruach HaKodesh, and then we begin to realize with our consciousness how does works in practice, everything that had been written down in the Torah long ago.

We mustn’t teach the crude law to our younger brothers but rather show them the way to walk with the Ruach HaKodesh who can fix the living Commandments in their hearts.

Then when we are convinced that they are also being led by Ruach HaKodesh direclty from within, we can begin to witness how He has restored the Commandments within ourselves.

Read more: Paul and the Law 2

Related articles: The Essence of the Law, Commandments in Yahushua HaMashiah?

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