Ok, that was funny!
You see the problem is, contrary to popular belief, we can’t just make up definitions for words and say “That is, or I have, a better definition than God gives so, I’m going with that.”. That was the sin of the pharisees and why Jesus was so harsh with them. I think the Bible still speaks to that today.
Might want to read Matt 15:1-20 for a cross reference. He calls the pharisees blind guides leading the blind because of THEIR rules and because they DO NOT follow Torah. He calls them hypocrites and says they honor Him with their lips but, their hearts are far from Him. Their rules were vanity.
I did not say the “kingdom of God is about meat”. I said if we are redeemed we should want to obey His commandments. What do you think “COMES OUT OF A MAN” when he doesn’t keep the commandments? Yeah, sin. Maybe that is what Jesus was saying, huh?
For me, it’s more of just sticking to the scripture in this conversation than a legalistic approach and “telling people they are disobeying God”.
Legalism is making up rules that aren’t God’s and following them as if they are, like the pharisees did. It is not “legalistic” to obey God’s commands after He has freely given His life to redeem you.
Play religion and make up your own rules if you wish, I will obey God because He has given me life. The world knows the hypocrisy of the church and loathes it. Many search for the God of the Bible who can save and help them change their dismal lives and you go ahead and tell them what God has said for thousands of years is not a good way to live.
Do not suppose that I came to throw down the law or the prophets--I did not come to throw down, but to fulfil; for, verily I say to you, till that the heaven and the earth may pass away, one iota or one tittle may not pass away from the law, till that all may come to pass.
Whoever therefore may loose one of these commands–the least–and may teach men so, least he shall be called in the reign of the heavens, but whoever may do and may teach them , he shall be called great in the reign of the heavens. `For I say to you, that if your righteousness may not abound above that of the scribes and Pharisees, ye may not enter to the reign of the heavens.(Mat 5:17-20)
Obeying God is not legalism. Obeying the dictates of your own mind is.
Who was circumcised of the first century church? Like every other commandment, God wants our hearts. If you are circumcised and you think that will save you, you’re wrong. If your heart is circumcised and you are true to God then your outward circumcision is a sign of that. Same for baptism.
The priests were specifically commanded by God to do His works on the Sabbath and were without sin. There is nowhere in the Bible that God says He took away the commandments.
If Jesus is our sabbath, why should that not be a sign for us, as the sabbath has always been? The Sabbath goes back to Creation. It was part of what God’s people understood BEFORE the written Torah was given. It was given from the dawning of the world. It should be important to us.