Old Testament or New Testament
Let’s pretend that right now I said, “Instead of a sermon, we are going to read the Bible for an hour.”
Would you want to spend that hour reading the Old Testament or the New Testament? [Wait for answers. ]
Why? [Wait for answers.]
I think in a crowd of 100 Christians, 90+ would choose the New Testament…and that’s not necessarily bad.
The bridge to cross for the New Testament is shorter. Much of what it contains is less difficult to read. It is easier to understand. It begins with us hearing about Jesus, the most awesome topic.
However, the Old Testament/New Testament preference can also be because the Old Testament seems archaic in its teachings. If people do certain bad things, we are supposed to stone them. We know more about how the tabernacle and the temple were supposed to be built (and outfitted) than is meaningful to us under the New Covenant. It can seem like a totally different moral world.
What was important theologically back then isn’t the same as what is important in the church age.
Or is it?
Reading through the Bible this year has included Leviticus 19, and the topic for this sermon, “Everything Old Is New Again,” hit me after digesting verses 17 and 18:
17 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. 18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.
Those words are in a book that has all kinds of stuff that fit my Old Testament/New Testament contrast. Yet, right in the middle of it, we hear enjoinments that sound very New Testament-ish. Let’s review them…
You Shall Not Hate Your Brother in Your Heart [Read more…]
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