July 2026: Piety Without Pomp

Published on 07/01/2026 by Dr-Shirley-Cheng.

Jesus' sacrifice did away with God's Law. True or false? False.

Our studies of God's Word dispel one major erroneous belief: the Torah does not apply to Christians. As we saw, nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus stressed the fact that the Torah is fully enforced and binding on his disciples by stating these truths:

a) The Torah won't pass away until Yahweh achieves all His plans for humanity. In Jesus' original words, he said that not even one jot or one tittle would pass away from the Torah. The "jot" is yod, the smallest Hebrew letter, while the "tittle" is the smallest pen stroke in Hebrew, like the dot for the lowercased "i" is in English. By saying this--and he prefaced it solemnly with "most certainly, I tell you"--Jesus underscored the fact that not the least bit of the Torah would be abolished yet.

b) Anyone who breaks the least of the Torah and tells others likewise will be called the least in the Kingdom of God, while those who do and teach the Torah will be great in God's Kingdom.

c) No one will enter God's Kingdom if their righteousness does not surpass that of the Pharisees and scribes.

d) Jesus came to fulfill, not abolish, the Torah or the Nevi'im.

However, not every bit of the Torah applies to Christians today. Since the enforceability and existence of the Torah is dependent upon God fulfilling all His goals and since that Jesus' sacrifice had accomplished or fulfilled the sacrificial system of the Torah, then all the ritual ordinances regarding sacrifice and ritual cleanness in the Torah do not apply to us now (they applied to Jesus' disciples prior to his sacrifice). To go on offering animal sacrifices for our atonement would amount to scorning Jesus' sacrifice. So it's only such ordinances that have passed away. All other remaining ordinances are moral commandments and principles by which we must live.

When we read the Torah, we may get confused about exactly how we are to apply its precepts to our lives. This is because the set of laws in the Mosaic covenant was appropriate only for the people of that specific time period and culture. For this reason, some of the precepts are not appropriate for many modern cultures, especially in Western societies.

However, God's principles are timeless; His principles do not change or expire. His principles are what govern the lives of His redeemed people, including all true Christians. This means that even though some precepts of the Torah are not applicable today for some societies, the principles behind the Torah still apply to all of God's people today, regardless of their culture or background.

We must understand that a law or rule has two components: the precept and the principle.

A precept is the specific statement of law. An example precept is: "You shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out the grain." (Deuteronomy 25:4)

A principle is the reason behind the precept. For example, the principle for the above precept is: A worker deserves his pay.

God's precepts evolve through time based on the change of cultures. However, His principles never change. For example, the precept regarding the ox was given to the Israelites based on the culture they had; many of them were farmers and owned livestock. But for the modern United States, for example, this precept is largely not applicable because an average American does not own oxen. Despite this, the principle behind this precept is still applicable for an average American today: a worker deserves to be paid.

This is why it is paramount for us to study God's Word and the laws God gave His people--we can discover the principles behind His laws, and Jesus' teachings help us understand those principles so we can better live by them.

As God's redeemed people, it is essential to live according to God's principles (and precepts wherever applicable). Obedience is the only proper response to God's redemption of us. Obedience is how we can show God we love Him and express our appreciation for His innumerable blessings.

Always remember what Jesus said: "Don't think that I came to destroy the law [Torah] or the prophets [the prophetic books in the Bible]. I didn't come to destroy, but to fulfill. For most certainly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the law [Torah], until all things are accomplished. Whoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments [of the Torah], and teach others to do so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever shall do and teach them shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven." (Matthew 5:17-19)

Now, let us return to our study of the Gospels.

Back in Matthew 5:20, Jesus told his disciples that their righteousness had to surpass that of the Pharisees and scribes in order to enter the Kingdom of God, and in the next portion of his sermon we're starting, he gave examples of what that entails. He covered three areas of righteousness: charitable deeds such as alms giving, prayer, and fasting.

Unassuming Charity

"But when you do merciful deeds, don't let your left hand know what your right hand does" (Matthew 6:3, WEB)

Regarding charitable or merciful deeds, Jesus taught, "Be careful that you don't do your charitable giving before men, to be seen by them, or else you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Therefore when you do merciful deeds, don't sound a trumpet before yourself, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may get glory from men. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you do merciful deeds, don't let your left hand know what your right hand does, so that your merciful deeds may be in secret, then your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly." (Matthew 6:1-4)

When we give alms to the poor, we should not make a show of how charitable we are. Certainly, when we spread word of the great deeds we do, we will receive praise from our friends and family, and even from the media, but that's all the praise we'll ever receive.

Our motive for feeding the hungry and clothing the naked should be our love for them, not the desire for attention. Even if we give all our goods to feed the poor but don't have love, it profits us nothing (1 Corinthians 13:3).

Jesus noted how the hypocrites announced their charity by blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets, so they could draw the crowds to how good they were. Their motive for giving was to receive adoration from people, rather than doing good for the needy. While they indeed got what they asked for (man's approval), they wouldn't get what truly matters: approval from God.

Unlike the hypocrites who showed off their charitable deeds, we are to do good without drawing attention to ourselves. Jesus used hyperbole when he said that we shouldn't even let our left hand know what our right hand does. When we perform merciful deeds secretly in the sense that we don't "show off" our piety, then the God who sees us performing good deeds secretly will reward us openly. We will gain the approval of our Father.

Proper Prayers

Regarding prayers, Jesus said, "When you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Most certainly, I tell you, they have received their reward. But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. In praying, don't use vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their much speaking. Therefore don't be like them, for your Father knows what things you need, before you ask him." (Matthew 6:5-8)

When we pray, we should not do so for the sake of making ourselves look good in the sight of man like the hypocrites in Jesus' day who prayed long prayers in the corners of streets to be seen by fellow Jews. It is not wrong to pray in public; however, if your motive for praying publicly is to get glory from others, then your prayers would mean nothing to the One whose judgment is most important, and whose answer you depend upon.

Our motive for praying should be expressing our deepest, sincerest feelings to our Heavenly Father. For this reason, we should not use vain repetitions such as memorized words or chants in our prayers. Would you greet your earthly parent each day, mechanically using memorized words? If not, then why would you pray using meaningless chants to the Parent of all parents? Would your friend be pleased with you if you talked to them each time in exactly the same way using the same words? Rather, wouldn't they like to hear you express yourself uniquely every time? Our aim is to keep our communication with our Father authentic and sincere and open, not reciting from scripts.

Even though we can say as much as we desire to our Father in our prayers, we should not deliberately make our prayers lengthy to manipulate God, thinking that the more words we use, the more likely He will answer us. Our almighty God knows exactly what we need even before we ask Him, so it's needless for us to pray long prayers to get His attention or "twist His arm."

Praying by the Model Prayer

Jesus instructed his disciples, "Pray like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. Let your Kingdom come. Let your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." (Matthew 6:9-13)

Let us dissect this prayer to learn how we should pray:

"Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy."

Our prayer should be directed to God and we ought to address Him as "our Father." "Our Father" denotes our closeness with God and closeness with fellow Christians, recognizing them as our spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ. Through our faith in the Messiah, Yahweh adopted us as His children. We were born again into a new family, with a new Father: our Life-Giver Himself. So God is not just our Creator or King but Father. Calling Him "Father" denotes the greatest intimacy. To call the King of the universe "Father" is our greatest privilege.

Our number one goal in life is to glorify our Father. In light of this, the main focus for our prayer is to seek the sanctity of the name of God. When we pray, "May your name be kept holy," we are agreeing that God's name (His essence, glory and attributes) is absolutely holy and are upholding it as such. When we make this petition, we are asking God to help us and other people to glorify Him through godly lifestyles.

"Let your Kingdom come. Let your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth."

A major part of upholding the sanctity of God's name is to desire that His Kingdom come and be established over humanity and that His will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. We should seek after His Kingdom and His will above all else.

"Give us today our daily bread."

We are to ask our Father to meet our daily needs. This request expresses humility, our dependence and reliance on Him, and our faith in Him.

"Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors."

Sins separate us from our Father, repelling Him from us. Whenever we sin, we must repent and ask our Father to forgive us. Our sins are like debts that keep accumulating if we fail to repent. Each sin is a debt because sin requires the wages of death. Since God is gracious and does not put us to death when we sin, then we have debts piling up way high. Due to his tremendous grace, God forgives our debts when we put faith in His Son and repent every time we sin.

We must not focus only on our debts. When God cancels out our debts, should we not show the same kind of mercy to those who sinned against us? When we go before God in prayer and ask Him to forgive us, we should do so in humility. Humility is expressed when we have forgiven the debts that others accumulated against us. To seek forgiveness for our debts when we refuse to forgive the debts of others is wrong. It is double standard.

"Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."

The world is filled with temptations of every sort. On our own, we cannot overcome them. We must humbly ask God to help us overcome them. We are to ask God to protect our path so that we won't run into any temptation. But when we do run into one that He permits in order to exercise our faith, we must ask Him to give us the strength to do what is right and not be enticed to do evil. We are to seek for divine protection from the evil one, the devil, the mastermind of temptations. Only God can deliver us from him.

From this model prayer, we see that we are exhorted to pray with humility and in faith. Our prayers should be God-centered and God-honoring, focused on His will.

Our prayers can either be concise with specific requests, or long when we have much to pray about. Though God knows everything, we nevertheless should voice our wishes and not hesitate to ask God to meet our needs. This is open communication, which is a key to any good relationship. God desires that we go to Him for our every need, big or small. God is happy to grant our requests so long as they are in accordance with His will.

Some Bible versions have, "For yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen" at the end of the model prayer which we dub the Lord's prayer. The oldest existing manuscripts do not have this ending, so it's likely not in the original Word of God but added by man.

How should we use the model prayer? We should use it as it is: a model. Note that Jesus said to pray "like" this. He didn't say, "Pray this." In other words, we should use it as an example or guide on how to pray. We should not literally use it as a chant, to pray it every time we pray to God. While it is fine to pray it from time to time, we should not pray it every time. If we pray it every time, then it would become a meaningless vain repetition.

What does your prayer life look like? Your prayers do not have to be beautiful or fancy to be meaningful; they just need to come from your heart. We had studied that Jesus' sacrifice opened the door for us to boldly go before God's presence in prayers, so seize this privilege: pray to God whenever you like, wherever you are, for whatever you need, be it for yourself or someone else. Then experience for yourself the indescribable peace that comes by praying to our Father in Heaven as a beloved child of God!


~*~ Q&A with Dr. Shirley ~*~

Question: Why should Christians obey God's commandments?

Answer: The purpose of obedience to Yahweh God's commandments is twofold:

a) It shows that you love Yahweh your Heavenly Father. Obedience is an expression of love. You cannot claim to love God while you rebel against His laws.

To show or prove that we love Yahweh, we must keep His commandments: "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous." (1 John 5:3, WEB)

In Exodus 20:5-6, Yahweh God equated obedience with love and disobedience with hate. When we obey God, that means we love Him. When we disobey Him, that means we hate Him. That's how God judges whether we love or hate Him, not by how we feel for Him (2 John 6). A Christian can "feel" love for God, but God will not see it as true love if the person fails to do His will. So it's a matter of a passive love (a feeling of love) versus an active love. We should have an active love, just as we should have an active faith. It's an active faith in Christ that saves us (James 2:14-26). A passive faith is the faith of demons, and is therefore fruitless (James 2:19).

b) It proves that your faith in God and in Jesus is genuine. How can you claim to believe in God if you do not fear the consequences of your rebellion? While our obedience to God's laws should not be driven by fear of punishment, we would be quite foolish to think that we will escape unscathed when we willfully disobey Yahweh's laws. Failing to perfectly obey God's laws when you have tried your hardest is one thing; to willfully rebel against His laws is quite another thing. There will not be any condemnation to only sincere Christians who failed to perfectly keep God's laws. It's another story for rebels. Simply put, God will not be mocked; we reap what we sow (Galatians 6:7).

Remember: "He [Yahweh through Jesus] will judge everyone according to what they have done. He will give eternal life to those who keep on doing good, seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that God offers. But he will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and instead live lives of wickedness. There will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on doing what is evil--for the Jew first and also for the Gentile. But there will be glory and honor and peace from God for all who do good--for the Jew first and also for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism." (Romans 2:6-11, NLT)

"For merely listening to the law doesn't make us right with God. It is obeying the law that makes us right in his sight." (Romans 2:13)

What holds you back from obeying Yahweh?

Pride is what holds most of us back from obeying God. Many of us believe that we are smart and wise enough to make our own rules and govern our own lives. But are we really? Our motto is, "Follow your heart!" But God's Word says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9, WEB) Look around us and see what we have done to our lives when we follow our hearts: corruption after corruption of every kind imaginable. Did the Boston marathon bombers not follow their hearts? I bet they did, even believing in their hearts that they were doing the right thing.

The first sin of humankind, committed in the Garden of Eden, stemmed from pride; Adam and Eve felt they could be on their own without God, and that they were good enough--or deserved--what God did not allow them to have: the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden. They only focused on what they wanted, not on what God wanted, just as the apostle Paul wrote, "Those who live following their sinful selves think only about things that their sinful selves want. But those who live following the Spirit [the Holy Spirit of God] are thinking about the things the Spirit wants them to do." (Romans 8:5, NCV)

If you claim to be a Christian, what is the focus of your life: you or God? Your obedience or lack thereof answers this question.


~*~ Dr. Shirley's News Flash ~*~

I've released an e-study guide for the book of Genesis titled, "Study of Genesis of the Holy Scriptures: The Beginning of Sin and Dawn of Redemption." It is suitable for both personal and group study. Grab a copy for yourself or a friend at:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FXY6M18Z

Proceeds will go to Unite in Love to support our brethren.

Unite in Love - Hope and Healing for Families:
https://gofundme.com/f/uniteinlove37

Do you have Bible questions and want answers? Contact Dr. Shirley and she'll be happy to answer your questions by the grace of God.

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