Verse of the Week: Acts 21:20

“And when they heard it they began glorifying God; and they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Torah;”

Acts 21:20 records something that should challenge many common assumptions about the earliest followers of Yeshua. Thousands of Jewish believers had come to faith in Messiah, and they were described as zealous for the Torah.

They did not understand faith in Yeshua as abandoning the Scriptures given through Moses. They saw Yeshua as Israel’s Messiah and continued living within the covenantal framework Yehovah had given to His people. Faith in Messiah and zeal for the Torah were not presented as contradictions.

This matters because Christianity has often created a division that the earliest Jewish believers would not have recognized. Yeshua lived faithfully according to the Torah. His apostles participated in the biblical rhythms of Israel. The book of Acts portrays Jewish followers of Messiah continuing to identify themselves with the people, promises, worship, and Scriptures of Israel.

Grace is not a license to sin and does not transform disobedience into righteousness. Those who have been redeemed should desire to walk in the ways of the One who redeemed them.

The restoration of a Torah-positive understanding of the faith is therefore not about returning to legalism. It is about returning to the biblical context of Yeshua and the apostles.

So, this week, consider whether your understanding of discipleship resembles that of the earliest followers of Yeshua. Read the Torah as instruction from your heavenly Father rather than as something opposed to faith. Ask Yehovah to remove inherited assumptions that contradict Scripture and seek to become increasingly zealous for righteous obedience while keeping your confidence completely in Yeshua.