BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS

Our Common Values

by Nancy C. Gaughan

As a Jewish believer and mother of two adult Jewish children who are not yet saved, I am sensitive to inadvertent walls that have been erected by sympathetic and prominent Christian leaders. These walls separate Jewish believers from Christians and Jews from all believers. Such barriers unnecessarily burden the Spirit-led lives of Jewish believers by making it much harder for us to spread the gospel to the Jews and by making it much harder for believing Christians to accept believing Jews into the body of the Messiah.

One such wall is the term "Christian Values". To understand the scriptures one must comprehend the Jewish culture at the time of Jesus. Jesus was not only the fulfillment, but also the embodiment of the Old Testament laws. The values Jesus taught were Jewish values and did not cease being Jewish values when the Messiah elaborated on and re-commanded them.

To unschooled Christians and unsaved gentiles, the term "Christian Values" seems to say the values are exclusively Christian, began with Christ. This lack of recognition of Jesus' Jewishness makes it very difficult for many Christians to accept as members of the body of the Messiah believers who adhere to the traditions that the apostles and the Messiah Himself kept. For example, when we were part of a Messianic Jewish Congregation, made up of believing Jews and Christians who worship on Saturday, we were twice turned down by local churches when we tried to rent facilities for our worship. Both times our request to worship was denied because it would have caused too much controversy within their congregations to have believing Jews, who had not given up their Jewishness, worship in their church.

To a Jew, the term "Christian Values" is as a red flag is to a bull. This is because, whether or not they practice them, Jews feel a sense of ownership, setting themselves apart by a higher ethical and moral code and by putting the welfare of the family and of the community above the welfare of the individual. The phrase is charged to a Jew because it does not give credit where it is deserved. The moral code that Jesus laid down pertains to all Jews and to all believing Christians alike. The lack of acknowledgment presents one more barrier for those who are burdened to reach the Jews with the Gospel.

Christian leaders who are sensitive to the work of uniting the body, enhancing the understanding of their own congregations, and breaking down one of the barriers between Christians and Jews, use the term "Judeo-Christian" for those Christian concepts rooted in the Old Testament. Perhaps it seems like a little thing, but anywhere we can break a barrier or build a bridge, we should take advantage of the opportunity.