Put Away & Receive

Let us dive right in! Moral filth and excessive evil according to Whom? According to what? Who or What defines what is acceptable and right? You? Me? Pastors? Leaders? Nations and the governments of men?

If we do a quick word study, we will see that it must be found within the implanted Word. The utterances of Yahweh. James continues on to tell us that this Word is able to save and rescue our souls. It is no wonder that Yeshua is called the Word and His Name is literally "Yahweh is Salvation." This is no coincidence. James understood this.

So, if this is true, what Word? Must we begin only in Matthew chapter 1 in order to find this Word that is able to save? When we read the authors of the Newer Testament, we must remember that (whether people like it or not) they were referencing the Tanakh - the Torah and the Prophets. There was no New Testament penned.

Now, of course, many shrug this off and say that the only Word this is speaking to is Yeshua (Jesus.) I'm not disagreeing with that as true, in part. Even with this being the case, it doesn't remove the necessity of the oracles of Yahweh, declared to and through men. As I'm always saying, nowhere in the Bible are we ever told that we must somehow choose between the Torah or Yeshua. That would be modern dispensational doctrines and completely opposes both Yeshua and the New Testament writers, like James.

We even see James, in chapter 1 verse 1 tell us that his statements were to the scattered Twelve Tribes of Israel. He, of course, understood the irrevocable connections. The timing of his writings is key. He immediately followed Yeshua, yet *always* promoted the importance of the Torah, post-Messiah. He rightly understood the whole. How precious it is to have his writings! This is why men like Martin Luther and John Calvin labored to get James removed. He was far too open about how important works are. Too often he promoted the need for Yahweh’s Torah in Messiah. After all, it’s hard to promote a “grace only” doctrine and that all works are meaningless filthy rags when James clearly stated that, “faith, if it does not have works, is dead.”

So, my proposal is simple. Let us be whole. Let us walk according to the Spirit in this age of evil's noise and clamor. May we take the necessary time to allow the entire Scriptures to tell us Father’s definitions of good and evil. Then, let us be deliberately putting off filthiness and evil that abounds, after we allow the Torah and the Prophets to define what evil and morality even are. Let us then receive, with humility, all that is the Word of Elohim. Perhaps then we can move into the future better prepared to rightly endure the evils and moral decay of this age. Selah.