HCC Weekly - June 22nd, 2026

June 22nd

Pastor David

Why do the men in our church not have long curly side burns? Why is everyone wearing mixed fabric? Why are we having bacon at men's breakfast? Why are we as Christians not following the laws of Moses? Remember, Jesus never abolished those laws and said that every detail of those laws won’t disappear until its purpose is achieved (Matthew 5:17-18). So, why do Christians in 2026 disregard the practice of the laws of Moses?

Galatians 3 gives insight into why this is:

Galatians 3:19 - Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised.

So the law given to Moses was never meant to last until the end of the world and the return of Christ. Instead it was meant to be a place holder, a protector:

Galatians 3:23-25- Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed. Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian.

The law was our protector. It helped reveal sin. It gave Israel an idea of what was expected of them in order to have a healthy relationship with God. But now, since we have Jesus, we have salvation which includes righteousness and holiness which was what the law was meant to help us achieve. Now Jesus does it for us. This allows us to not worry about righteousness and holiness for ourselves (because we can’t earn it ourselves anyways), instead we can focus on simply bringing glory to the kingdom of God through our actions and words.

The disciples had to navigate this whole new faith and figure out how to balance it with their old faith (Judaism). In fact, the disciples still considered themselves religious Jews and practiced the tenets of the law while living for Christ. In Acts 10 we read about the first Gentiles coming to Christ (the house of Cornelius) and there was an upheaval when Peter returned to his fellow Jewish Christians and he had to explain what happened.

Then they had other problems because 5 chapters later they are navigating one of the biggest commands of the mosaic law (circumcision) and whether new gentile converts needed to be circumcised in order to be living a proper life for Christ. Ultimately they decided to give these gentile converts the following regulations: Acts 15:28-29- “For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay no greater burden on you than these few requirements: You must abstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood or the me at of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. If you do this, you will do well. Farewell.”

Looking at the language used, the disciples indicated they didn’t want to put more burden on these gentile converts than was necessary and so they gave them three guidelines to live for Christ instead of the 613 commands found in the law of Moses.

And so, go and cut your side burns, go eat that bacon and go wear those clothes, because your focus is no longer on obtaining salvation through your actions (because Jesus does it for you) instead focus on loving God with all your heart and loving your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39) (which helps you live out the majority of the law anyways).

P.S. This doesn’t mean that every aspect of the law is void. Notice I didn’t say go and murder or go and covet your neighbors things. The moral aspect of the law is still in place, but diving deeper into that is for another devotional.