SET APART

How would you feel if the very things that set you apart from others, and made you special in who you are, was suddenly not setting you apart any more? The Jewish people were God’s chosen people. There were three main things that set them apart from others. Circumcision, the keeping of Sabbath, and the food laws.

These three things set them apart and aside from others. Circumcision was something the Gentiles didn't do. They also get not keep Sabbath, and they ate what they wanted.

Along comes Jesus and suddenly the very things that made the people of God different from others, did not matter any more. Now we have Jews and Non-Jews sitting together, and though they have Jesus in common, because of their beliefs they can not eat together, the Gentiles are not circumcised, and they don’t keep Sabbath.

Now there was something new setting believers of Christ apart from others. But what of the teaching that the Jewish people had been raised in. Were they to take the very thing that had separated them from others, and now except others who did not adhere to those standards.

In those days it was possible for a person to become Jewish. For this to happen one had to be circumcised, baptized, and keep the whole law, including the Sabbath and the food laws.

Now suddenly that is all changed. People are praying to their God and they are unclean. For many Jewish people who did accepted Christ, it had to be a hard adjustment. How to integrate these peoples together?

You didn’t realize integration was a problem before now? Yes it was and those problems had to be worked out.

God Bless
rECj/LJG

SCRIPTURE FOR TODAY
Exd 16:23 And he said unto them, This [is that] which the LORD hath said, To morrow [is] the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake [that] which ye will bake [to day], and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.