What Is Sin, and What Is a Torah Fence?

Within my faith background, and as far as my truest walk with Jesus has taken me, I’ve learned that what many believers (and unbelievers, too) think doesn’t always line up with Scripture regarding our obedience to God.

A perfect example of this is the definition of sin.

Much of Christianity has an ambiguous definition of sin, saying, “Anything I decide is bad.” Or saying, “My pastor said it’s this.”

The scriptural definition of sin is breaking God’s commandments, not any nebulous thought we may have about what is moral or immoral.

Sin, according to 1 John 3:4, is a transgression of the Law. But what law? The only Law of God that there has ever been.

The Torah.

Everything listed in the first five books of the Bible defines sin for the rest of the Bible.

The LAW DOES NOT OFFER SALVATION OR JUSTIFICATION, but it offers life, and those who keep the precepts ‌are blessed and favored by God.

There is a Hebrew concept called “fencing the Torah” or putting up guardrails around the original commandments. This was a common practice in the 1st century that the Pharisees took way too far. Jesus called them out, saying they were adding traditions of men as commandments (Matthew 15:9).

There isn’t anything wrong with putting up guardrails around the Torah. It is the heart behind it. Jesus Himself placed fences around the commands, but His fences were the heart of the command in the first place.

Instead of praying ill for your enemies, love them. Not that imprecatory prayers were sinful. We should pray that terrorists are eliminated by righteous nations. In this, I support our current president and the leader of Israel for taking action against the wicked. Eliminating evil is an overall just thing for the world.

Instead of looking at your neighbor’s wife and wishing to steal her from him, you don’t even have the thought in your heart. Adultery begins within.

This is an amazing fence around the Torah.

Now, I will say, we can’t use Matthew 5:27-28 to lump in a bunch of made-up sins like kissing your boyfriend or girlfriend before marriage. That’s adding to the Torah, which is expressly forbidden by Deuteronomy 4:2.

Fornication is a different sin than adultery, which always involves a married woman.

Thinking a woman is beautiful is an innocent thing, and not adultery.

Desiring to take your friend’s wife or girlfriend as your own is adultery in the heart.

In using a fence like this, you are doing a benevolent thing, because love does not defraud or do harm to your neighbor.

I’ve often spoken of treating others with love. I also separate actions from desires, and want the best for certain demographics that are not the norm in society.

But to put a fence up around the command not to commit acts such as sodomy (pardon the graphic term, please), you might say it begins in the heart, which means avoiding the ideology like you might avoid a neighbor’s wife.

I think a case can be made for either side of this issue, but the heart of it all is love. I lean toward the traditional interpretation not necessarily being black and white.

Remember, sin is what the text actually says, not a loving relationship without crossing that boundary.

Also, Christians today like to add to the Torah, which, ironically, is a sin.

Be a Berean and study to show yourself approved.

There seems to be an idolatrous component to this as well, because the modern idea of homosexuality is foreign to the Bible. You might say the action is the issue, because homosexuality is a modern concept.

Looking into ancient eunuchs and studying the word in the ancient world made me realize the original languages don't always convey what English says.

Jesus even touches on this issue, saying some were born this way,being eunuchs from their time of conception.

Just a thought to ponder upon.

This is a contentious issue, and while I respect those who are diligent and trustworthy in their studies, we need to remember the Bible is an ancient, Middle Eastern text. It was written for us but not to us.

I believe in loving all manner of people. But Jesus does not want us to stay in our sins forever bound by them.

Jesus healed people, then told them to repent. The woman caught in adultery had been offered mercy, yet she had been told not to continue in her sins, despite the conniving trap of the religious leadership trying to trap Jesus because they didn’t also bring the man.

Fornication is defined by Leviticus 18, Leviticus 20, scattered verses about prostitution (usually to a false god or goddess), and idolatry using sexuality many times in the Bible.

Not waiting until marriage could prove fatal for women in ancient Israel, and it is clear from exegesis being a virgin until marriage is ideal.

That is a rare thing these days, and with Yahweh’s mercy, people who have failed can start anew and practice a new life the right way, even if they have failed.

Our pasts do not define us, but our new way of life does.

Putting a fence around this area of life might mean staying out of precarious situations, even with a significant other, and crawling through courtship instead of speeding. Dating is the way of the world. Courtship is the way of the Father. The end goal is marriage and not trying before buying.

Paul said it is better to marry than to burn with passion. He didn’t say one had the passion beforehand and gave in. He said to marry.

“Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous” (Hebrews 13:4 [ESV]).

This area is perfect for using the concept of a Torah fence.

Remember, though, we are in the New Covenant of Messiah.

In this, His Torah is magnified, but not everything is executed like it was before. Melchizedek’s Priesthood is higher than Levi, not that Levi is without honor.

Christians are not saved by the Torah, nor are they expected to keep every aspect in a modern world. We are not sacrificing animals for sin, though the Millennium will have a form of this system, even with the Levites.

Strange, though, but it’s the truth.

We can't keep the literal, theocratic commandments that only apply in such a political state.

We would be in error to even think to keep Levitical purity laws without the Temple. But hygiene is always in style.

And then there are some strange questions to tackle even knowing this.

There are passages in the Bible such as the passage of Isaiah 66, that describe the Second Coming and Yahweh destroying those who eat pork in the latter days.

Pork isn’t healthy for us, and the question must be asked: Why is God destroying people who eat swine in the End Times if He doesn’t care about what we eat?

Not legalistic, but legal.

But simultaneously, we can’t make the mistake of thinking Gentiles are erased from their identity.

People in the Hebrew Roots movement will point out how Acts 15 states the Gentiles were eventually expected to keep the whole Torah because it mentions Moses being read in the synagogues. But that logic is strange, because eight years later we have the apostles saying the same thing:

“'And concerning those of the nations who have believed, we have written, having given judgment, that they observe no such thing, except to keep themselves both from idol-sacrifices, and blood, and a strangled thing, and whoredom’” (Acts 21:25 [YLT]).

If the Hebrew Roots interpretation is correct, then why is it that at least eight years later they haven’t changed a thing about Gentiles? They would have had eight years at least to learn the Torah.

I used the literal translation here to show the text in Greek says they observe no such thing. Some English translations often omit this point.

It seems the entire ceremonial aspect of the Torah that dealt with the Temple purity isn’t in effect without the Temple.

Gentiles are to remain Gentiles, grafted into Israel as strangers among them, choosing the route of Hebrew faith if God so calls them to.

My point is, placing a fence around your diet is wise, but not necessarily a sin that would require a blood sacrifice.

The same goes for drinking alcohol. It is permitted by the Torah, but unwise to be a drunkard. You put a fence around this by abstaining from it. Besides, if you need to drink to have fun, something isn’t quite right and a heart check is needed.

To review, a sin is a transgression of the Torah. But the New Covenant Torah is different in some respects from the Sinai Covenant Torah.

Unlike Hebrew Roots believers say, the Torah has changed multiple times. The eternal Torah of God has not changed, but the individual minutia has often changed.

Torah is how the commandments work in a particular covenant, not a rehash of the same old covenant in the way it had been practiced.

A newer covenant does not negate the importance of the older one, and Christians should study and honor the Torah. Strong’s 2319 means new, and can mean renewal, but the Book of Hebrews clarifies this point for us as a novel covenant, not a rehash.

The Torah is a beautiful thing, but we are not to be slaves to the letter of the Law. We are to honor and extol the Torah, and follow what does apply to us as Christians, but not turn to such a thing for salvation.

The Torah blesses us, curses us, and defines sin.

What it does not do is make us right before a holy God.

We can’t make up sins, we can’t go overboard with Torah fences, and we can’t say Gentiles must be erased forever.

Most of all, remember that the goal of the Torah is the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and living for Him apart from the world’s ways, showing them love through keeping God’s commands.

Besides, He has our best interest at heart and we shouldn’t question an all-knowing Being’s wisdom on these matters.

Don’t make up sins, don’t put people in bondage based on made-up sins, and honor the spirit of the Torah.

Like the apostles said to the Gentiles, “If you do these, you will do well.”