“This verse summarizes the entire book of Judges. When people abandon God’s standards, life breaks down and disintegrates at all levels.”

- Rabbi Barry Rubin, The Complete Jewish Study Bible

Those without a king are living in complete anarchy, willing to fight to keep power over themselves, and oblivious to the wickedness in which they live. However, Jesus is our King. So how do we obey King Jesus? Fortunately, He tells us how:

He says that He did not come to destroy the Law, and that not even a stroke will pass away from it until all things are accomplished. All these have not yet been accomplished, so whoever breaks even the least command will be called least. “But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Additionally, He tells us to be more righteous than even the Pharisees. The way to obey King Jesus is to obey the one Who sent Him.

Therefore, we may not judge for ourselves what to obey and what not to obey, but let the One True Judge decide. He gave His Torah, and commanded all Israel to obey it. However, what does that mean for us? Do we just throw it all away because we’re not Jewish? God forbid it. So, what laws do we obey, and how? Well, that was a topic of concern for the apostles as well. Because we are not Hebrew, but believe in the Messiah of Israel, what was to be done? Must we convert to Judaism to be saved? Some thought so. However, Paul was adamant that Gentiles had a seat at the table now, and that there would no longer be Gentile believers if we all converted to Judaism. So, they held a council. The Acts 15 Jerusalem Council. After great debate, the Spirit declared Gentiles’ obedience to King Jesus in this way:

They did not want to create a burden for the Gentiles coming to faith in the god of Israel. So, our law is to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality (i.e., adultery, masturbation), from eating anything that has been strangled (meats need to be appropriately slaughtered, “kosher”), and from blood (menstruating women, blood in meats, as well as eating parts off of a living animal). These four commands make up the law for the Gentile believers of Jesus. However, James also says:

In other words, these are the base four commands which make up our law, however, “for since ancient times, Moses has had those who proclaim him in every city, and every Sabbath day he is read aloud in the synagogues.” They never expected Gentile believers in Jesus to create their own religion and separate themselves from Israel. They determined these to be the basic four commands for a God-fearer, and fully expected that God-fearer to hear the Law proclaimed every Sabbath in the synagogue so that he could best determine how much he could obey. These four commands were meant to only be a starting point, assuming we would grow in knowledge of Torah from there.

These are the statutes of His Kingship. By the power of the Holy Spirit, these four commands have been declared for Gentile worshippers in His kingdom, but we are not limited to them. From here, the God-fearer can determine which other commandments are suitable for him to fulfill within his Gentile identity. Since the synagogue would be that believer’s only community, having left the sinful community of his past behind, it was expected that they would also observe the Sabbath rituals and festivals in fellowship since they no longer had any other holidays of their own to celebrate. They could no longer celebrate the holidays of the idols of their past. Living in obedience to King Jesus and loving His Father is obeying His Father’s commands. He even says so:

What better way to love God than to obey His will? How do we know how to love our neighbor without the boundaries of Torah? We don’t. Naturally, we are greedy, and jealous, and we lie, and hurt one another for our own gain. Furthermore, Jesus goes on to say that “all the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.” This means that these two commands summarize the whole Old Testament. He is not replacing Torah here, but simply stating its main idea!

For Jesus to be your King, you must not do what you or any other human thinks is right, but what He Himself has told us is right, both in flesh and in Spirit. We are Gentiles living under the authority of the King of Israel. Therefore, it would be appropriate for us to assimilate ourselves with the people of Israel in order to form one nation - His nation. His kingdom. We are to submit to His commands, which are the commands of His Father, deny ourselves daily, and live in obedience to His ways, outlined in the Torah, but prescribed specifically for us Gentiles in Acts 15.

“May the Grace of the Master, Yeshua the Messiah, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit abound to us.”