Peter warned us that Paul’s letters are hard to understand, and that “those which are unlearned and unstable twist, as they do the other scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:16).
Peter then goes on to say in the next verse (v. 17) that being that you (the reader) know these things, beware of this, lest you be led away with the delusion of lawlessness.
He is literally saying not to be led away by lawlessness.
If you think Paul is teaching in his letters that the law is done away with, or that obedience is no longer necessary for sanctification, I promise you—and I say this in love—that is NOT what he is saying, even if your pastor or another Believer is speaking or teaching differently.
I know it LOOKS like Paul is saying that—and people provide very convincing arguments to make it look like that’s the case. But this is why Peter told us that Paul is hard to understand. You see, we have to spend some time understanding the audience that different disciples were sent to speak to. We have to spend some time understanding the audience of the letters in which they were written to. This is why people take Paul out of context all the time. It is so easy for people to take one specific verse out of Paul’s letters and build an entire doctrine around it to make it mean something contrary to what he is actually saying.
When I talk to people, the way I speak to them depends on where they are at in their faith. For example, I speak to new Believers very differently than I speak to those who have been chewing on the meat of scriptures for a while. It’s really about meeting people where they are at. This is the same thing that Paul did, and it will help us to understand his letters better if we understand the audience that he directly wrote these letters to.
Paul spent a lot of time ministering to the Gentiles. These were people who did not know Yahuah or His ways/commandments. They were strangers to His covenant. This is why in Paul’s letters you can see how he taught and illustrated the distinction between justification by faith and works. You can see how he taught the importance of having the testimony of our Messiah, but at the same time stressed the importance that Yah’s commandments are something to be learned and cherished. This is why Paul says in multiple places that works don’t justify you—faith does.
“Do we then, nullify the law by this faith? Certainly not—we establish the law.”
Romans 3:31
On the other hand, James was a disciple who was sent to minister to the 12 tribes of Israel (James 1:1). That’s why we see how the theme of his epistle was showing the Israelites (who KNEW Yahuah and were familiar with His commandments) how faith PLUS works harmonize in the Father’s plan of redemption.
“But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?
James 2:20
What I’m trying to say is that you can see how Paul spent time showing the distinction between justification (faith) and works, while James beautifully explained the way that faith AND works harmonize with one another.
The reason people can’t see how faith plus obedience to the commandments is still necessary and relevant today is because this is what happens when people establish their doctrine with the New Testament without having their foundation in the Old Testament first.
That’s why it LOOKS like Paul is saying something that is true, but is actually cherry-picked and isolated out of context to mean something that it doesn’t, making what Peter said heartbreakingly true:
“The unlearned twist his words, as they do the other scriptures, to their own destruction.”
Do you want to know why Paul was accused of being a heretic and ringleader of a cult?
It wasn’t because he “professed Christianity.” And it wasn’t because he was teaching that the commandments were done away with because of Messiah, either.
The answer is given to us in Acts 24 & Acts 28.
Before Paul stood on trial before Felix, he first went before the council of the Sanhedrin, which was comprised of both Sadducees and Pharisees. Context alert: Paul WAS a Pharisee from the tribe of Benjamin. But he now had the testimony of Messiah, which was not received well by many of his brethren.
So, at Paul’s trial before Felix, it is written:
“For we have found this man a plague, a creator of dissension among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.”
Acts 24:5
“Sect” in Greek is hairesis, meaning “heresy.” In other words, one could call it “false teaching.”
When Paul was given the chance to respond to these accusations, this is what he said:
“But this I confess to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect, so I worship the Elohim of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets.”
Acts 24:14
Contrary to popular belief, this verse testifies that Paul is professing his loyalty to the commandments and the prophets. It is also recorded in Acts 28:17 that Paul said: “I have committed nothing against the people, or customs of our fathers” (he is speaking to his Israelite brethren here).
And then it says in Acts 28:23-24 (speaking to the same people), that when they asked Paul what he thought about this heresy he was being accused of, he said:
“So when they had appointed him a day, many came to him at his lodging, to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of Yahuah, persuading them concerning Yahusha from both the Law of Moses and the Prophets, from morning till evening. And some were persuaded by the things which were spoken, and some disbelieved.”
Did you catch that?
Paul was teaching about the revelation of Yahusha our Messiah THROUGH the Law and the Prophets. THROUGH the Old Testament.
Remember, even Yahusha told the people to “search the scriptures, for they testify of Me” (John 5:39).
Paul was not giving any sort of false doctrine. He was using the Old Testament to preach the good news of Messiah. There was no New Testament “Scriptures” in the time of Yahusha or at the time of Paul’s writings.
Still today, people don’t really know the Messiah because they don’t know the Scriptures.
Still today, people continue to twist Paul’s words out of context because they don’t know the Scriptures.
Paul never spoke against obedience to the writings given to us in the books of Moses and the prophets. Paul never spoke against obedience to the commandments.
Paul had a different testimony, one in which was called “heresy.” He explains throughout all of his epistles, that Yahusha renewed the covenant by making the true fulfillment of prophecy being one in which the Father’s commandments are to be written on our hearts—being justified because of our faith, but being sanctified through our works and obedience to the Word.
What Word?
The only Word that was around during the time that Paul penned those epistles.
Faith and works are not at odds with one another. The New Testament is designed to help us see how the two harmonize because of the renewed covenant.
With Love,
Stephanie Green