Okay, Open your Brit Chadasha and take a right past the book of Hebrews. There you will find a famous Torah teacher. That's right! Ya'akov also referred to as James was one of the Torah teachers in the Brit Chadasha. Ya'akov was the leader of the Jewish believers in Jerusalem. What would you expect him to be teaching? Nu?
He taught and reinforced the Torah and the Tanakh years after Yeshua's resurrection.
We love Ya'akov. He even preserved an easy proof that believers in his day worshiped in their own synagogues!! You mean they didn't go to their local church? No, not if we believe the Brit Chadasha! Do a little word study in James 2:2!
James 1:25 "But if a person looks closely into the perfect Torah, which gives freedom, and continues, becoming not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work it requires, then he will be blessed in what he does."
Much of the Brit Chadasha including the Gospels were not yet even written at the time of James's letter to the Twelve tribes! What could the "law" have been? Fascinating...a doer of the work the Torah requires..........will be blessed!
James 2:8-12 If you truly attain the goal of Kingdom Torah, in conformity with the passage that says, "Love your neighbor as yourself, "you are doing well. But if you show favoritism, your actions constitute sin, since you are convicted under the Torah as transgressors. For a person who keeps the whole Torah, yet stumbles at one point, has become guilty of breaking them all. For the One who said, "Don’t commit adultery,"also said, "Don’t murder."Now, if you don’t commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the Torah. Keep speaking and acting like people who will be judged by a Torah which gives freedom. "
James 2:21-26 Wasn’t Avraham avinu declared righteous because of actions when he offered up his son Yitzchak on the altar? You see that his faith worked with his actions; by the actions the faith was made complete; and the passage of the Tanakh was fulfilled which says, "Avraham had faith in God, and it was credited to his account as righteousness."He was even called God’s friend. You see that a person is declared righteous because of actions and not because of faith alone.
Likewise, wasn’t Rachav the prostitute also declared righteous because of actions when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another route? Indeed, just as the body without a spirit is dead, so too faith without actions is dead.
Here again James is teaching from the Torah and Tanakh.
James 4:11 Brothers, stop speaking against each other! Whoever speaks against a brother or judges a brother is speaking against Torah and judging Torah. And if you judge Torah, you are not a doer of what Torah says, but a judge.
So don't be a shlemil! Get some freedom in your life! Follow Torah!