## [30] The Power of the Law of Moses Today and the 12 Commandments

The Law of Moses was not the first set of Laws that God gave to Mankind. Adam was given one rather simple Law in the Garden, and then he and his seed certainly had the Law of Vengeance after the garden - see U133. But God did not become the physical king over a group of his own people until the Law of Moses. For the king is the one that makes the laws for his people. This is explained cryptically by the scripture...

14 Nevertheless, death [Satan] ruled as king from Adam down to Moses (Romans 5).

'Death' is the name that Satan has. Just as Jesus is the way the truth and the life, Satan is the dead-end, the lie and the death. Satan gave us death and Jesus gave us life. Satan was making all the laws for the majority of mankind from Adam down to Moses. But God stepped in at the time of Moses and gave us the Law of Moses, on 1513Sivan3 BC - see U2. This was the most comprehensive view of God's justice that mankind had ever seen. But Paul says to us...

20 Therefore by works of law no flesh will be declared righteous before him, for by law is the accurate knowledge of sin (Romans 3).

Paul did not say that by law was the accurate knowledge of sin. He said that by the law is the accurate knowledge of sin. So although the Law of Moses was 'ended' when Jesus nailed it to the stake, the justice embodied in that Law is as valid today and as perfect as it was in Jesus' day and in Moses' day 3500 years ago. So if a brother committed a crime under national law today but did not break the law of Moses in doing so, then the congregation would not be in a position itself to sanction that brother, although they might have a duty under national law to hand him over to the authorities.

Here is how Jesus ended the Law. He was condemned to death by the Aaronic high priest Caiaphas, and Pontius Pilate carried out this sentence not of his volition but due to the wishes of the multitude at Jerusalem...

22 Pilate said to them: What, then, shall I do with Jesus the so-called Christ? They all said: Let him be impaled!
23 He said: Why, what bad thing did he do? Still they kept crying out all the more: Let him be impaled!
24 Seeing that it did no good but, rather, an uproar was arising, Pilate took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying: I am innocent of the blood of this [man]. You yourselves must see to it.
25 At that all the people said in answer: His blood come upon us and upon our children [It did in 70 CE] (Matthew 27).
His death on Good Friday, April 1st, 33 AD (33Nisan14), ended the Law of Moses as a true religion. However the law was a covenant that remained binding upon all those who had entered it unless they were released from the Law by God, through the water baptism of John. The Law ended completely when the temple was destroyed by the Roman General Titus on 70Ab10. For without a temple it is impossible to present any of the sacrifices required by the Law of Moses to God. After Jesus died, it was no longer necessary for the sons of the Law who had been baptised in water into John to present any sacrifices or to worship in accordance with the physical requirements of the law. However those baptised into John had to obey not the law of Moses, but the law of the first true Christian church. But the judicial principles and the fundamental definitions of sin, behind both sets of laws are the same. The law of the Christian church is more mature and more merciful than the law of Moses. But one cannot understand how merciful Christian law is without seeing a man stoned to death under the law of Moses for a capital sin. So the law of Moses was a necessary stage before the law of the Christ, just as the kindergarten is a necessary stage before the primary school. But before Jesus died all Christians under law including Jesus himself, had to obey it.

4 For Christ is the end of the Law, so that everyone exercising faith may have righteousness (Romans 10).

Whereas under the Law of Moses, righteousness came not from faith, but from bringing along the correct sacrifice on the correct day, i.e. from works. It is important to understand that although the New Covenant was made on the very day that Judaism fell as a true religion, the day that Jesus died, the New Covenant did not replace the Law Covenant. The Law covenant was to do with a cleansing of the flesh, and was replaced by the covenant that John was water baptising the Jews into, the first Elijah covenant, EC1. Both the law covenant and EC1 were subcovenants of the ICC. For more details on baptisms - see I34. The New Covenant was to do with a cleansing of the spirit, it is a subcovenant of the JAC.

9 This very [tent] is an illustration for the appointed time that is now here, and in keeping with it both gifts and sacrifices are offered [under the law of Moses]. However, these are not able to make the [man] doing sacred service perfect as respects his conscience,
10 but have to do only with foods and drinks and various baptisms. They were legal requirements pertaining to the flesh and were imposed until the appointed time to set things straight [through the sacrifice of the Christ] (Hebrews 9).

5 Not that we of ourselves are adequately qualified to reckon anything as issuing from ourselves, but our being adequately qualified issues from God,
6 who has indeed adequately qualified us to be ministers of a new covenant, not of a written code, but of spirit; for the written code condemns to death, but the spirit makes alive [causing one to be born again as an angel] (2 Corinthians 3).
So the new covenant is a subcovenant of the ARC, being a covenant of the spirit, whereas the Law covenant is a subcovenant of the CRC, being a covenant for a true religion. In fact the Law is a subcovenant of the ICC, the Isaaic Church Covenant, which is the system covenant of the CRC in the Abrahamic System. Therefore although the New covenant was made on the Thursday evening March 31st 33AD, on the same Hebrew day (that runs from evening to evening) that Jesus died thereby ending the Law of Moses as a form of true worship, ending Judaism as a true religion, turning the Law of Moses into a false religion (he died on the Friday afternoon of April 1st, 33AD), it is not true to say that the New Covenant, replaced the Law Covenant, since these two covenants deal with different things. In fact the Law covenant was replaced by a Covenant mediated by John the baptist, the first Elijah Covenant (1EC), for his water baptism was the gateway into the next true religion, whereas the Red Sea baptism was the gateway into the Law for the sons of Israel who left Egypt...

1 Now I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, 2 and all got baptized into Moses by means of the cloud and of the sea (1 Corinthians 10).

### The Law as an education in true Justice

It is important to understand that the Law of Moses was the primary school for mankind. And when you are naughty as a small child you are punished physically, smacked, if your parents cannot get through to you with words. The Law of Moses was brutal in punishment but not unfair. No one can argue that an eye for an eye is unjust.

23 But if a fatal accident should occur, then you must give soul for soul,
24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25 branding for branding, wound for wound, blow for blow (Exodus 21).

19 And in case a man should cause a defect in his associate, then just as he has done, so it should be done to him.
20 Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; the same sort of defect he may cause in the man, that is what should be caused in him.
21 And the fatal striker of a beast should make compensation for it, but the fatal striker of a man should be put to death (Leviticus 24).

But the law was not unloving or vengeful...

17 You must not hate your brother in your heart. You should by all means reprove your associate, that you may not bear sin along with him.
18 You must not take vengeance nor have a grudge against the sons of your people; and you must love your fellow as yourself. I am Jehovah (Leviticus 19).
The vengeance of the law was defined, personal vengeance was forbidden. After all it is the purpose of any good set of laws to eliminate the need for personal vengeance. Today we say: Oh that is so brutal, taking peoples eyes or teeth out as a punishment for blinding a person or knocking out his teeth. We say: Apply this law universally and the whole world will end up blind and toothless! But actually the reverse is more likely to be the case. In Saudi Arabia, where they have a very unjust and sick penalty for theft (cutting off a hand), there is very little theft. This would suggest that if today, in the West, we applied the penalties of the Law above, there would actually be less injury to mankind, because every eye removed judicially would stop several eyes being lost to carelessness or violence, due to fear of this penalty in the whole population.

The Law of Moses is two step thinking. One step thinking is: We have already had one eye removed by violence, if we take another as a punishment, then we will have two invalids to deal with. Two step thinking is: In taking the second eye, you prevent more than one further incidence of this type of crime. So if you really want to be loving and protect the eyes of mankind, then enact the law above. Agreed it feels counter-intuitive, but it works. Instead in the UK we have no corporal punishment whatsoever, and we have a crime every second according to the tabloid press, and a large fraction of these are violent.

In fact the lack of any discipline for kids from parents or teachers now means that children at UK schools feel so unsafe that 10% of them have carried either a replica or a real gun to school at some time or other according to the Times Newspaper headline of July 4th 2005. This of course is a shattering condemnation of government intervention which prevents parents from smacking effectively and prevents teachers from disciplining kids effectively. But the government will not admit that it is wrong and sick to interfere with the parents rights to bring up their children or with the teachers parentally delegated rights to discipline their children in their classroom. One step thinking is: Oh do not strike the child, you might hurt it or damage it psychologically. Two step thinking is, if the child is unruly it may become an abusive bully, believing itself to be accountable to nobody. Then 10 other children have to bring guns to school in case they are attacked by this bully. Then one day a courageous student will stand up to the bully and either will give him more corporal punishment than the parent would have had to give him to bring him into line in the first place, or may himself be murdered by the bully. Now in the latter case, who really murdered that child?

So by refraining from physically punishing the violent criminal in justice, given human nature, we guarantee a larger number of unjustified physical assaults on victims in the future. If our aim is to reduce violence and suffering then banning corporal punishment is self deceit. We might feel better that we have somewhat less barbaric laws, but the victims of violent crime feel worse and there are a lot more of them, so our society is actually more barbaric as a result.

We are not proposing here that the Law of Moses should be re-introduced into the modern world, Jesus died to save us from that Law, which perpetually condemned us. We are merely attempting to assess its impact on a modern society and we are certainly proposing that the discipline of children is a matter for parents and teachers not governments.

In fact the Christian congregation today has no punishments at all other than a warning or a 7 month expulsion - see Joining! But we need to understand true Justice before we can appreciate true mercy. If by some misfortune or possibly by a deliberate act, the reader has damaged someone in his life, then please understand the mercy you have been shown if that damage has not been returned also to you.

### An eye for an eye as an upper limit for just legal penalties

A few years ago a spectator at a football match called the famous Manchester United footballer Eric Cantona's mother something undesirable. Eric's response was to pivot himself on the railings of the crowd barrier and kick the man in his chest. The man stepped back a bit, but appeared unhurt. The Football Association then went ballistic at Cantona and accused him of bringing the game into disrepute. In truth, it was the spectator that did that, by slandering the family of a top club player of the beautiful game. Eventually the football player suffered a 3 match ban and a huge fine. But in justice the most that should have happened to him was that the spectator should have been allowed to kick him in the chest, and only if he first apologized and withdrew his false and abusive remarks about Eric's mother. One should not impose a larger penalty on a man than the wrong he has committed, except in the case of theft. This is one lesson of an eye for an eye. It was not the whole left side on your face for an eye, it was an eye for an eye.

Martha Stewart apparently lied to the police during an investigation into her share dealings. What damage was done as a result of her 'lie'? As far as the writer can tell absolutely none. For the avoidance of doubt we are not addressing the possibility here the lie of Martha's might have prevented her being charged with a share dealing offence. She was not so charged. Therefore a great injustice was done to her when she was incarcerated as far as we can see. There were no victimless crimes under the Law of Moses. Mankind does not presently have the resources to solve all of the crimes we commit which actually do have victims, so why are our lawmakers formulating laws which create 'victimless crimes'? This practice is both unjust and pharisaical. No victim = no crime, is another lesson from the law of Moses.

### Bankruptcy and the tools of your trade

6 No one should seize a hand mill or its upper grindstone as a pledge, because it is a soul that he is seizing as a pledge (Deuteronomy 24).

The hand mill and the upper grindstone were the tools of the trade for an agricultural worker, as most people were in ancient Israel, they meant bread for him. Likewise today a man should keep the tools of his trade when he goes bankrupt. UK bankruptcy law still contains this provision.

### Your dwelling house should not be used as security

10 In case you lend your fellowman a loan of any sort, you must not enter into his house to take from him what he has pledged.
11 You should stand on the outside, and the man to whom you are making a loan should bring the pledge outside to you (Deuteronomy 24).

So no debt collector is allowed to enter your house. By implication no debt collector could take your house as security for any debt, since he is never allowed even to enter it. So every mortgage issued on a private residence is usury. In fact if the banks could be persuaded to lend to businesses rather than on residential property, then house prices would fall, and the economy would boom, and we would all be several times richer. It is the availability of cheap mortgage money lent on ludicrous salary multiples that pushes house prices out of the reach of the man in the street. If the banks were prohibited from lending on residential property we would all be able to buy our houses from one years salary as was the case 40 years ago. 40 years ago a very nice detached house in a good area of London could be purchased from the annual salary of a professor of surgery working for the national health service. Today the same house would cost around 20 times a medical professor's salary. However the house would only be 10 times a well paid national health service administrator's salary!

### Social Security but only if you work for it

22 And when you people reap the harvest of your land, you must not do completely the edge of your field when you are reaping, and the gleaning of your harvest you must not pick up. You should leave them for the afflicted one and the alien resident. I am Jehovah your God (Leviticus 23).

So if you were hungry, you could go round the edge of the field and get enough grain to make some bread. You had to glean, then mill, then bake. This was food stamps but you had to work for them. So Social Security should go to those incapable of working and to those willing to do something useful. It should not be given to a person capable of work, in the absence of his doing any work. This requires a new type of system. One simple solution might be that you have to work for a small company a few days a week in order to get your social security cheque. And that company is permitted to pay you only the unemployment benefit rate plus expenses. The company would then get some useful work, and the unemployed person would have something useful and motivating to do for his money.

### Frivolous and Opportunistic Law suits

17 the two men who have the dispute must also stand before Jehovah, before the priests and the judges who will be acting in those days.
18 And the judges must search thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and has brought a false charge against his brother,
19 you must also do to him just as he had schemed to do to his brother, and you must clear away what is bad from your midst (Deuteronomy 19).

This is a fantastic provision which would stop so many frivolous and opportunistic suits from ever occurring in the US especially. Supposing you sue MacDonald's for $10,000,000 because some spilt some hot coffee on your leg and it stung you a bit for a few seconds. Then if you lose the suit, for whatever reason, you should pay $10,000,000 to MacDonald's. The Michael Jackson trial was a classic no lose situation for the family who made what the court held to be false charges against him. Had the charges been found true, then Jackson might have spent several years in a prison. Since they were found false, the Mother and the boy, Gavin Arbizo, according to the Law of Moses, should have received the penalty that they were attempting falsely to fix upon Michael. Had these two known this beforehand, it is very unlikely that they would have given evidence and so Tom Sneddon would not have been able to waste the courts time as he did. Tom Sneddon said to the press: I do not like his kind of Music! referring to the Music of Michael Jackson. But Michael wrote: We are the world! How can you not like a song used to raise millions for starving Africans?

One witness in the trial said that the mother had lied under oath in a personal injury suit against J C Penney and won $152,000. The point is that again she was in a no lose situation in both cases, because US law is not formulated as the Law of Moses suggests. There is very little penalty for someone giving a false witness against a large corporation or a rich celebrity. Had the mother known that she herself would lose $152,000 if her testimony was found to be false, the litigation against J C Penney would most likely not have occurred either.

### Can you shoot a burglar?

There was a recent case in the UK where a farmer who was being systematically burgled by a group, finally shot one of them in the act. He got locked up, but now the law has been changed.

2 If a thief should be found in the act of breaking in and he does get struck and die, there is no bloodguilt for him.
3 If the sun has shone forth upon him [he is no longer creeping around in the act of burglary], there is bloodguilt for
him (Exodus 22).

So the Law of Moses provided that you could kill a burglar in the act of burglary, but you could not chase him down the street and then kill him. The thief loses his legal rights during the criminal act, because the act of burglary can be a threat to the life of the victim, and so the victim has the right to treat it as a murderous assault on his person, and therefore kill the burglar in self defence. A Christian might not want to go that far. But Christianity is about tempering justice with mercy. The point is that he has the right to go that far if he wishes. A right that the UK law now recognises.

### Are we better off today than the Jews were under Law?

Under the Law of Moses a man was born owning land, which he could work to live off, and upon which he could build his own house. The man owned his wife, he owned his children, he paid 10% tax, he ate organic food exclusively, he took good exercise during the course of his working day and if he wanted a permanent sexual partner but did not want marriage he could purchase a maidservant of his choice and sleep with her indefinitely.

Under the Laws of Western Democracies a man is born owning nothing, he rarely if ever gets to own any land. He spends his entire life trying to pay off his mortgage and only when he retires does he normally get to own his house. But as soon as he achieves that, if he has an argument with his wife, she gets his house. His wife is owned by the Social services, who can provide her with much more security than her 'loser of a husband' is good for, and in particular will always provide for her if she kicks him out of his own house. His children are owned by his wife, to whom the courts invariably give custody. He pays over 90% tax, once indirect taxes such as VAT and fuel tax and alcohol taxes are taken into account. His diet is processed supermarket food and cheap unhealthy take-aways eaten irregularly with the occasional organic but very expensive meal out. He takes almost no good exercise during his working day and if he wants a permanent sexual partner whether married or not, he is statistically very unlikely ever to find one. How is any of that an improvement?

Let's face it guys we are being royally shafted! Not by women, but by the Laws of Western Democracies. Even the Law of Moses with all of its draconian penalties was better! Harold MacMillan said at the beginning of the 1960s: We have never had it so good! Well if that ever was true, it certainly is no longer. We have plainly never had it so bad!

The reason that families are falling apart today is that they have been decapitated (the family headship of the husband has been removed) by laws dreamt up by one step thinking control freak 'do-gooders' who refuse to acknowledge that God or any other two step thinker can see further than they can. Our happiness, our families and our society are not being destroyed by people, they are being destroyed by Satan through our governments, which are making all the wrong laws for us.

### The 12 Commandments

There is of course a much better way of avoiding violence in a society than having an equally violent justice system. This is for parents (in the plural) to teach all of their children love and respect by example - themselves. This can change 'human nature' to the point where violent legal penalties are no longer necessary. This then is the secondary school for mankind, the law of the church of Christ, the generalisation of family love to a whole congregation. This is the law of love. Jesus taught us love by example and he gave us two more commandments in this regard, to add to the 10 we got from Moses...

1 And God proceeded to speak all these words, saying:
2 I am Jehovah your God, who have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves.
3 You must not have any other gods against my face.
4 You must not make for yourself a carved image or a form like anything that is in the heavens above or that is on the earth underneath or that is in the waters under the earth.
5 You must not bow down to them nor be induced to serve them, because I Jehovah your God am a God exacting exclusive devotion, bringing punishment for the error of fathers upon sons, upon the 3rd generation and upon the 4th generation, in the case of those who hate me;
6 but exercising loving-kindness toward the thousandth generation in the case of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 You must not take up the name of Jehovah your God in a worthless way, for Jehovah will not leave the one unpunished who takes up his name in a worthless way.
8 Remembering the sabbath day to hold it sacred,
9 you are to render service and you must do all your work 6 days.
10 But the 7th day is a sabbath to Jehovah your God. You must not do any work, you nor your son nor your daughter, your slave man nor your slave girl nor your domestic animal nor your alien resident who is inside your gates.
11 For in 6 days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them, and he proceeded to rest on the 7th day. That is why Jehovah blessed the sabbath day and proceeded to make it sacred.
12 Honor your father and your mother in order that your days may prove long upon the ground that Jehovah your God is giving you.
13 You must not murder.
14 You must not commit adultery.
15 You must not steal.
16 You must not testify falsely as a witness against your fellowman.
17 You must not desire your fellowman's house. You must not desire your fellowman's wife, nor his slave man nor his slave girl nor his bull nor his ass nor anything that belongs to your fellowman (Exodus 20).

Then Jesus gave us another 2...

36 Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?
37 He said to him: You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.
38 This is the greatest and first commandment.
39 The second, like it, is this: You must love your neighbor as yourself.
40 On these two commandments the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets (Matthew 22).

The Law of Moses did actually contain both of Jesus' two new commandments not as commandments but as Laws.

5 And you must love Jehovah your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your vital force (Deuteronomy 6).

17 You must not hate your brother in your heart. You should by all means reprove your associate, that you may not bear sin along with him.
18 You must not take vengeance nor have a grudge against the sons of your people; and you must love your fellow as yourself. I am Jehovah (Leviticus 19).

Jesus elevated these two laws to come above the 10 commandments themselves! He elevated them to the status of the first and second commandments, which when added to the existing 10 commandments gives us 12 of them.

For Jesus did not die to end the 10 commandments. He died to end the law. The two new Christian commandments are referred to in other places as well. The first new commandment was about love for one's brother in the church...

34 I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, that you also love one another (John 13).

12 This is my commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you (John 15).

And Jesus loved even his enemy, Judas, letting himself be kissed by him and showing us by his actions the force of his counsel to love our enemies and to pray for those persecuting us. For with eyes seeing the light, it is the persecutor who is in the real trouble. Then Jesus hinted at a second new commandment and John confirmed it. Jesus said:

36 While you have the light [Jesus - the way, the truth, the life, the word and the light, the light of the world], exercise faith in the light, in order to become sons of light. Jesus spoke these things and went off and hid from them (John 12).

John shows this to be a commandment from God for people in the true church saying...

23 Indeed, this is his commandment, that we have faith in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and be loving one another, just as he gave us commandment (1 John 3).

Verse 23 has the commandment from God to put faith in the salvation claims of Jesus, and the commandment from Jesus to love everyone. But these are none otehr than the two greatest commandments of the law. To love God and to love your brother, for Jesus was elevated to be a God, having the name above every other name, which name is Jehovah after he died. Indeed he passed through the heavens to be higher than the heavens as God himself is. But these two new commandments did not replace the old ones for John said...

7 Beloved ones, I am writing you, not a new commandment, but an old commandment which you have had from [the] beginning. This old commandment is the word which you heard [form Moses, the 10 commandments].
8 Again, I am writing you a new commandment, a fact that is true in his case and in yours, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
9 He that says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness up to right now.
10 He that loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in his case (1 John 2).

And again we read...

5 So now I request you, lady, as [a person] writing you, not a new commandment, but one which we had from [the] beginning, that we love one another.
6 And this is what love means, that we go on walking according to his [God's] commandments. This is the commandment, just as you people have heard from [the] beginning, that you should go on walking in it (2 John 5).

So God has given us 10 commandments through Moses, one through John and one trhough Jesus, making 12.

21 And this commandment we have from him [Jesus], that the one who loves God should be loving his brother also (1 John 4).

So for the sake of completeness and for the avoidance of doubt, here are the 12 commandments for a Christian...

1. I am Jehovah your God, who have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves.
You must not have any other gods against my face.
2. You must not make for yourself a carved image or a form like anything that is in the heavens above or that is on the earth underneath or that is in the waters under the earth. You must not bow down to them nor be induced to serve them, because I Jehovah your God am a God exacting exclusive devotion, bringing punishment for the error of fathers upon sons, upon the 3rd generation and upon the 4th generation, in the case of those who hate me; but exercising loving-kindness toward the thousandth generation in the case of those who love me and keep my commandments.
3. You must not take up the name of Jehovah your God in a worthless way, for Jehovah will not leave the one unpunished who takes up his name in a worthless way.
4. Remembering the sabbath day to hold it sacred, you are to render service and you must do all your work 6 days. But the 7th day is a sabbath to Jehovah your God. You must not do any work, you nor your son nor your daughter, your slave man nor your slave girl nor your domestic animal nor your alien resident who is inside your gates. For in 6 days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them, and he proceeded to rest on the 7th day. That is why Jehovah blessed the sabbath day and proceeded to make it sacred.
5. Honor your father and your mother in order that your days may prove long upon the ground that Jehovah your God is giving you.
6.You must not murder.
7.You must not commit adultery.
8. You must not steal.
9. You must not testify falsely as a witness against your fellowman.
10. You must not desire your fellowman's house. You must not desire your fellowman's wife, nor his slave man nor his slave girl nor his bull nor his ass nor anything that belongs to your fellowman.
11. You must love God with your whole heart, your whole mind, your whole soul and your whole strength and you must have faith in the name/salvation authoirty of God's Son, Jesus Christ
12. You must love one another as Jesus loved his church and you must love even your enemies as Jesus loved his, giving his life for them too.

So we can now sum up the 12 commandments very simply as follows.

[1] Love God more than yourself. He is the centre of your universe, not you.
[2] Love your neighbour as yourself, not more and not less.
[3] Obey a set of laws for your community which enable both of the above loves to flourish.

Or putting this more simply still the 3 laws are...

[1] Continually adjust your conscience so that your view of good and bad matches God's view (which is correct).
[2] Obey your conscience.
[3] Obey a set of laws for your community designed to help everyone to follow [1] and [2].

Today, we are not under the Law of Moses, we can work on the 7th day of the week if we so choose. But the sabbath principle goes way back before the law. It first appears in Genesis 2! So it is a principle that we would do well to observe in our lives in some form. Holidays are important to one's state of mind. We do not need to take them regularly by rote, but we do need to take them. As Jesus said:

7 So he went on to say to them: The sabbath came into existence for the sake of man, and not man for the sake of the sabbath (Mark 2).

So the idea is that holidays are a joy not a burden.

If we can keep these 12 commandments in mind we do not to badly. The last commandment, not to desire the possessions of another, is to be policed by our own conscience. It is not a sin to desire to sleep with another man's wife. It is a sin to sleep with another man's wife. However a mature Christian (none of which exist on this planet) would actually himself police the desire and therefore no rely on the last line of defence which is to avoid getting to close to his brother's wife. But please do not feel guilty if you want to murder a traffic warden or sleep with a married glamour model. So long as you never manage to achieve either you have no sin. But the responsibility for regulating your behaviour cannot only lie with the law of the church. Some responsibility lies with your own conscience. So this un-enforcable commandment is an important commandment because it points the way forward to a time when we will not need any Laws because our consciences and our love and wisdom will make us lawful without our needing to be constantly disciplined by a spiritual police force! It is therefore a prophetic commandment. But we have a way to go before we get there!

So we start with the Law of Moses, the primary school, violent external discipline. Then we progress to the Law of the Christ, the secondary school, non violent external discipline. Then we progress to the Law of our conscience, the Kingdom of God, the university - internal discipline, self discipline!

### The power of the Law today

20 Therefore by works of law no flesh will be declared righteous before him, for by law is the accurate knowledge of sin (Romans 3).

Jesus died to end the physical restrictions of the law, to end the sacrificial obligations of the law and to end the brutal penalties of the law. But his death did not end or change the perfect judicial principles of God that the law made manifest to mankind through Moses, neither did he end the spiritual restrictions of the law or the sexual restrictions. These things even today give us accurate knowledge of sin. When the apostles were deciding which parts of the law should remain binding upon Gentiles this was their decision.

20 but to write them to abstain from things polluted by idols [maintain spiritual restrictions of the law] and from fornication [maintain sexual restrictions of the law] and from what is strangled [a soul is a breather, strangling is a very serious physical restriction to your soul, so this is meant symbolically and means do not keep the physical restrictions of the law] and from blood [abandon the sacrificial requirements of the law] (Acts 15).

The requirements to abstain from literal strangled things and from blood are tautologous if taken literally. So they are both meant symbolically. So the spiritual requirements of the law still apply. The sexual requirements of the law still apply. The physical requirements of the law no longer apply today and the sacrificial requirements of the law no longer apply.

For example: Christians can eat pork, we can have tattoos, we are allowed to cut the extremities of our beards, we can marry people who are not Christians, we do not have to present any farm animals to anyone when we misbehave, and we don't get to knock someone's tooth out if they have knocked one of our teeth out.

It is really important to realise that if someone knocks your tooth out today, then yes, under Christian law, you can defend yourself if he is still attacking you or might continue the attack. Furthermore if in the process of reasonably defending yourself the attacker gets killed, you are not guilty of murder if his actions posed a real threat to your life. But if you go after an attacker for vengeance, and knock his tooth out in vengenace, then you are guilty under the law of the Christ today. Vengenace belongs to God, and do not worry, he is far more effective than you could ever be.

19 Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but yield place to the wrath; for it is written: Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says
Jehovah (Romans 12).

Were we to exact the vengeance penalties of the law, say breaking a man's arm who had broken our arm, we would be considered a belligerent violent person and given an official warning by the congregation for a fleshly act.

However we still should not consult with spirit mediums or look for omens worship any idols or rob any temples. We should still rise up before grey hairs. We should still prove to have accurate scales and accurate weights. We should not call down evil upon a deaf man or put an obstacle before a blind man. We can however wear garments made of two different sorts of fabric today, since that prohibition in the law was a physical restriction which Jesus ended.