Recently, I asked a number of Christians, most of whom were either Christian leaders or were in the church for a number of years, “What are the two main New Testament laws?” Almost all of the answers were, “Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself” (See Matt. 22:37-40). Before you read any further, what would your answer be? The fact of the matter is that the above two commandments are the “pillars” on which rests the entire Old Testament, namely in the Ten Commandments.
Contrary to popular belief, these are not the pillar new covenant laws. The pillars of the New Testament are “And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment. Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us” (1 John 3:23,24, NKJV).
Jesus was summing up the entire Mosaic law, as especially embodied in the Ten Commandments, when He said that we were to, “love the Lord with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves.” While the simplicity of these two great commandments still have relevancy for us today, we need to remember that Jesus was speaking as one under the law of Moses. The New Covenant had not yet been inaugurated.
While the reader may not at first see much difference between the two sets of Scriptures, the difference is as wide as life is from death. I cannot overemphasize the importance of understanding these differences. By holding the summation of the Old Covenant Law as the pillar laws of the New Covenant, we have yoked ourselves to a dead covenant and are reaping the fruit thereof. We must get back to the foundations established by Jesus Christ. The church over the last two thousand years has strayed greatly being lead into the traditions of men and the doctrines of demons. The purpose of this article is to re-establish two pillars from which the majority of Christianity has strayed while returning to relics of the Old Covenant which Paul called the “ministry of condemnation” and the “ministry of death” (2 Cor. Chapter 3).
If we build upon a false foundation, will not the fire of God burn it all away? Will the storms not wash the sands away revealing an unstable foundation? And if the tree does not bear good fruit, will it not be brought to the ground by the ax of the Lord? Is it not better for us to repent while we can and spend the rest of our lives building upon a sure foundation rather than to continue in traditions we know will surely perish in the fire?
I personally believe an understanding of the differences between these two sets of pillars is absolutely crucial to Christian life. That fact that many Christian leaders and seasoned Christians all gave the wrong answer indicates how wide and deep we have fallen from grace. It is my hope that this article be instrumental in turning Christians back to our Sure Foundation. Perhaps if we get back on the foundation of Life, instead of death, we may rediscover the gifts and fruit of the Spirit. We may begin to manifest the reality of Christ instead of the hypocrisy we so often display.
(The first few pages explain a little about my background and what made me feel the need to write this article. If you wish to skip this section and get to the heart of the matter, skip to the heading “Mixing Law and Grace.”)