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How to Enter the Kingdom of Heaven


For most Christians, one of the most important words in their religious vocabulary is “saved.” Their mission is to save as many people as possible. Why? They have been taught that only those who are “saved” will spend eternity in Heaven with God. That was not the focus of Yeshua’s message. His goal was to bring as many people as possible into the Kingdom of Heaven -- while they are alive. He taught that it will only be those that live in the Kingdom of Heaven before death that will ultimately enter eternal life later. We will be learning much more about that in this series of discussions that we call “Yeshua’s Kingdom of Heaven Handbook.” We will reconstructing the teachings of Yeshua so we can understand them more accurately by incorporating new information that we discover as we learn about his language, culture and the time period in which he taught his followers.

The goal of this discussion is to reconstruct the words of Yeshua recorded in Matthew 5:21-22a:

Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. Whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. For I say unto you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

What does “least commandments” mean to you? For many Bible readers it is very confusing. The place we find the answer reveals much more than just the meaning of “least commandments.” It reveals a shared link between the teachings of Yeshua and the teachings of the Pharisees. A key difference between the Pharisees and other Jewish sects was their belief that Moses received two types of instructions from God on Mt. Sinai -- the Written Torah and the Mishnah (Oral Instructions). The Written Torah consists of the first five books of the Jewish Scriptures and the Christian Bible – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

The Mishnah was not written down until around 200 CE. During the time of Yeshua it was memorized and only taught orally by the early rabbis, the teachers in the Pharisee sect. A very important parts of the Mishnah is the tractate called Avot – the Sayings of the Fathers. The quote below is from Avot 1:1.

“. . . Be cautious in judgment. Establish many pupils.
And build a fence around the Torah.”

These are three of the foundational requirements for being a teacher in the Pharisees. The one that applies to our search for the meaning of “least commandments” is “build a fence around the Torah.” The “fences” are called “light commandments” in the Hebrew language in which Yeshua taught. Like the Pharisees, Yeshua’s teachings were all . which the translators of the King James Version The purpose of the fences was to make sure their students did not break even one of the commandments of the Torah by accident or ignorance. If a person does not break through a fence (break a light commandment) they will not break the “heavier commandments.” You can spot Yeshua “building fences” in his teachings by watching for his use of the phrases “you have heard that it was said” and “but I say unto you.”

“You have heard that it was said of them of old time, `You shall not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment,’ but I say unto you, ‘That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.’” (Matthew 5:21-22a)



Every member of his Jewish audience immediately remembered the account in the Written Torah where anger led to murder – the story of Cain and Abel. We will discuss Yeshua’s fences above in much more detail in a future discussion. But for now, we have enough information to reconstruct the teaching of Yeshua we are examining today from Matthew 5:19-20:

1. A person that breaks one of Yeshua’s fences (light commandments) and teaches others to break it is still able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he will be called “least in the Kingdom.”

2. A person that does Yeshua’s fences (light commandments) and teaches others to do them will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and he will be called “great in Kingdom.”

3. A person whose acts of righteousness do not exceed the acts of righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

The only requirement for entering the Kingdom of Heaven is “doing acts of righteousness” and in Yeshua’s teachings that applies to Jews and Gentiles alike – or as he put it in Matthew 25:36 – all the nations of the earth. Followers of Yeshua heard one teaching after another about how to do acts of righteousness – and they saw Yeshua do them every day. They clearly understood that “doing acts of righteousness” was the only way to enter the Kingdom of Heaven and that only those in the Kingdom of Heaven will enter into eternal life!

We will also be discussing “doing acts of righteousness” many more times as we reconstruct the teachings of Yeshua and create our own copy of Yeshua’s Kingdom of Heaven Handbook. We set up a Yeshua’s Kingdom of Heaven Handbook Page on our website with links that allow you to print these discussions so you can put them in a notebook and make your personal hard copy of Yeshua’s Kingdom of Heaven Handbook where you can put your notes and comments too.   

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Shalom,

Jim Myers


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