R. Hiyya taught: To a king who had an orchard into which he brought laborers without revealing to them the reward for planting each of several kinds of trees in the orchard. Had he revealed to them the reward for planting each kind of tree in the orchard, the laborers would have picked out the kind of tree for whose planting there was the greatest reward and planted it; thus the work of the orchard would have been neglected in one section and not neglected in another section. Even so, concluded R. Abba bar Kahana, the Holy One, blessed be He, did not reveal to Israel the reward for heeding the different precepts of Torah. Had He revealed it to them, Israel might have picked out the most rewarding precept and heed-�ed only that one. Then the Torah would be neglected at one Section and maintained only at another Section. While the reward is a reality, obedience to the teachings of Torah is the essence of a genuine faith in God. In the orchard, each tree must be planted and tended properly. One section cannot be maintained to the neglect of another. The motivation for service therefore is based more on total obedience than work to earn a reward. The workers in the orchard receive a reward, but they must serve out of an earnest desire to care for the needs of every planting. The rabbinic parable emphasizes total obedience to God without concern for the final compensation.
Excerpt from: "The Parables: Jewish Tradition and Christian Interpretation" by Brad H. Young. #torah #obediencetogod #faithinaction
“So Jesus said to those Jews who had believed in Him, If you abide in My word [hold fast to My teachings and live in accordance with them], you are truly My disciples. And you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.”
John 8:31-32 🖤 The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” The Gospel which the Church preaches, the Gospel of God’s grace to individuals, expressed so perfectly in the first eight chapters of Romans and sometimes epitomized in four or five “spiritual laws,” is the truth, and it is nothing but the truth. But it is not the whole truth. The whole truth requires restoring the Jewishness of the Gospel. ...unless the Church does everything in her power to restore that Jewishness, she lacks a key component of the Gospel. In consequence she cannot fulfill the Great Commission properly, and the Jewish people cannot be the right kind of “light to the nations.” ... When the Church proclaims a Gospel without its Jewishness restored, she is at best failing to proclaim “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). At worst she may be communicating what Paul called “another Gospel” (Galatians 1:6-9). Moreover, not only Jews suffer from this off-target preaching — Gentiles suffer too.
Excerpt from: "Restoring The Jewishness of the Gospel: A Message for Christians Condensed from Messianic Judaism" by David H. Stern, Ph. D. #gospelofjohn #thetruthwillsetyoufree #messianicjudaism #jewishroots #wholecounselofgod
