Jewish Religion/Jewish Scripture

Comment:

Dear Marilyn,

The Bible is "taken up" with the Jewish religion because it is the history of the Hebrew people, and that part of it we call the Old Testament was originally—and still is—the scripture of the Jewish faith. Jesus did not come to “transcend” the Jewish laws, but to "fulfill" them (Matthew 5:17). It is not that the laws were “unloving” and Jesus replaced them all with the one word "Love." Certainly Jesus calls us to unconditional love. And he calls us to recognize that love expresses through law. In other words, he didn't remove the laws, he gave us a new perspective on divine law. The law exists to help us act in loving ways, to express the innate loving divinity that is our true nature. Jesus was fully an observant Jew; his concern was with those who focused on a blind obedience to the letter of the law and ignored the loving spiritual energy that expresses through the law—and through each of us as we follow the law to the elevated consciousness Jesus calls us to.

Blessings!

Rev. Ed