Do I have to live a Jewish lifestyle if I follow Jesus?
It is an important thing for some believers to follow a Jewish lifestyle.
They only use Hebrew names for God, blow shofars, keep the majorJewish festivals each year, and celebrate the Sabbath weekly. Do Christians need to slavishly follow every Jewish ritual? I don’t think so. It’s optional, because Christ has already come. He freed us of a religion that revolves around the maintaining of festivals, rituals and obscure religious food customs.
Let us look quickly at what a typical Jewsish lifestyle would have entailed in the time when Jesus was on earth. Circumcision, the Sabbath and specific food customs immediately stand out. Every Israeli man was circumcised, every Israeli person kept the Sabbath from Friday night at sunset until Saturday night at sunset, and every Israeli was known for the strict following of food customs as laid out in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. Jews did not receive people into their homes who did not follow these food customs. Those in their midst who did not hold to the different festival days or the weekly customs of fasting were treated with skepticism at best. For Jews in the first century after Christ, religion was mainly focused on maintaining outer purity and eschewing impurity of all forms.
Jesus didn't pay much attention to all these things mentioned above. From early on He was considered a Sabbath offender as we read in Mark 3 and John 5. In fact, his blatant disregard of the Sabbath rules directly led to two death threats against Him early on in his ministry. Jesus and his disciples also did not follow the ritual hand-washing customs before meals as we read in Mark 7. Jesus was a religious game-breaker; that is why the religious leaders of the day considered him impure and labeled him ‘a friend of Satan (Mark 3)’ and ‘a glutton and drunk (Matthew 11).’ He was also seen as a defiler of the temple. Jesus definitely did not come to maintain ritual food customs, festivals and official cultural practices. In contrast, he did not come to maintain the law, but rather to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17-20). He himself is now our Sabbath rest. Seven days a week we celebrate Sabbath in following Him. Jesus is also our new temple and our heavenly food. According to Acts 10, all food is now permissible.
Thus, we do not really have to hold a Jewish lifestyle to win God’s favor and approval, as Paul writes in the letter to the Galatians. Lastly, we don’t need to know Hebrew names of God alone. God allowed that his Name be translated into Greek, and that the whole New Testament be written in Greek from the beginning.
God was up to something brand new.