Kingdom Ready Blog

From my experience, many churches tend to “downplay” the Old Testament. In other words, many churches do not “pay much attention” to the Old Testament – instead, they focus almost exclusively on the New Testament.

There are many reasons why churches do this; but one of the common reasons is that churches believe the following idea:

“Everything that Jesus taught us was brand new. In other words, all of the statements that Jesus made cannot be found anywhere in the Old Testament. Therefore, Christians should not really “pay attention” to the Old Testament – because all of the information there is obsolete.”

Is the above idea actually true? Is it true that everything that Jesus taught us is not found in the Old Testament? Let’s take a look at some of Jesus’ most famous teachings, and then see if those teachings are found in the Old Testament or not. We will do this by comparing verses from the New Testament, with verses from the Old Testament.

1. “Love your neighbor as yourself”

One of Jesus’ most famous teachings was his commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself”. From what I have seen, most Christians seem to think that Jesus just “made that up” – i.e., that this was a brand new teaching, which is not found anywhere in the Old Testament. Is that actually true? Let’s find out:

New Testament – Mark 12:30-31 (ESV)

²⁸ And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” ²⁹Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ³¹ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Old Testament – Leviticus 19:18 (ESV)

¹⁸ You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

Jesus did not “make up” the love your neighbor as yourself teaching at all. On the contrary – that teaching is a direct quote from the Old Testament!

2. “God hates divorce”

Another of Jesus’ famous teachings is that God does not approve of divorce. In fact, he equated getting divorced and remarried with adultery! So, is there any indication in the Old Testament that God does not approve of divorce? Let’s find out:

New Testament – Matthew 19:9 (ESV)

³And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” ⁴He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, ⁵and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? ⁶So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” ⁷They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” ⁸He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. ⁹ And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.“

Old Testament – Malachi 2:15-16 (NASB)

¹⁵ …Take heed then to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth.

¹⁶“For I hate divorce,” says the LORD, the God of Israel, “and him who covers his garment with wrong,” says the LORD of hosts. “So take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.”

As we can see, God made it very clear that He hates divorce – even in the Old Testament!

3. “God prefers peace”

On many occasions, Jesus taught that God wants us to always try to be at peace with each other. Many Christians believe that that teaching is only found in the New Testament – because most Christians have the idea that God was a “God of War” in the Old Testament. So, let’s see if there is any indication in the Old Testament that God prefers peace:

New Testament – Matthew 5:9 (ESV)

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Old Testament – 1 Chronicles 22:7-9 (ESV)

⁷David said to Solomon, “My son, I had it in my heart to build a house to the name of the LORD my God. ⁸But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘You have shed much blood and have waged great wars. You shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed so much blood before me on the earth. ⁹Behold, a son shall be born to you who shall be a man of rest. I will give him rest from all his surrounding enemies. For his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days.

The specific reason why God did not allow David to build the Temple, is because David had fought in too many wars! This tells me that God prefers peace – even in the Old Testament!

4. “Lust is a sin”

Finally, one of the most well-known teachings of Jesus is that not only is the act of adultery wrong, but even just looking at a woman lustfully is a sin.

From my experience, 99.9% of Christians believe that this is a brand new teaching, which is not found anywhere in the Old Testament. In other words, most Christians believe that Jesus gave his followers a completely new, “higher standard” of conduct to follow – and that that higher standard is not found in the Old Testament at all. Is that actually true? Let’s find out:

New Testament – Matthew 5:27-28 (ESV)

²⁷ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ ²⁸But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Old Testament – Job 31:1,9-11 (NIV)

¹ “I made a covenant with my eyes
       not to look lustfully at a girl.

⁹ “If my heart has been enticed by a woman,
       or if I have lurked at my neighbor’s door,

¹⁰ then may my wife grind another man’s grain,
and may other men sleep with her.

¹¹ For that would have been shameful,
       a sin to be judged.

As we can see, Job was very well aware that even just looking at a woman lustfully is a sin – and Job was born about 2,000 years before Jesus was!

From the above examples, we can see that many of Jesus’ most famous teachings do exist in the Old Testament – in fact, in some cases, Jesus explicitly quotes from the Old Testament. So, I would say that we should not ignore the Old Testament – because Jesus certainly did not ignore it in his teachings!

Instead, we should read the entire Bible – both Old and New Testaments – just as Paul tells us to:

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NASB)

¹⁶All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;

¹⁷so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

Finally, it is important to note that there are many items that are relevant to Christians, which only appear in the Old Testament! For example, the Kingdom of God – i.e., the hope for all believers, including Christians – is never explicitly defined in the New Testament. However, it is defined, in great detail, in the OT.

Also, the sins of incest and bestiality are definitely sins for Christians. However, those sins are not mentioned in the New Testament at all – they are only mentioned in the OT. So, to reiterate – Don’t ignore the Old Testament!