Set Apart and Called in Yeshua
Scripture shows that sainthood is not an exclusive title earned through church councils, but the identity of every person called and cleansed through faith in Yeshua the Messiah:

1 Corinthians 1:2

"To the assembly of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Messiah Yeshua, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Yeshua the Messiah, our Lord, both theirs and ours."

Ephesians 1:1

"Paul, an emissary of Messiah Yeshua by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Messiah Yeshua."

Philippians 1:1

"Paul and Timothy, servants of Messiah Yeshua, to all the saints in Messiah Yeshua who are in Philippi, with the overseers and servants."

Cleansed by His Sacrifice and the Spirit
A person is qualified as a saint through the blood of Yeshua and the ongoing work of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit):

1 Corinthians 6:11

"And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Yeshua and by the Spirit of our God."

Colossians 1:12–14

"...giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins."

Hebrews 10:10

"By that will we have been made holy through the offering of the body of Yeshua the Messiah once for all."

Standing Firm in Torah and the Faith of Yeshua
The Scriptures tie the endurance of the saints directly to keeping God’s commandments and holding steadfast to trust in Yeshua:

Revelation 14:12

"Here is the patience of the saints: here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Yeshua."

Revelation 12:17

"So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Yeshua."

Psalm 50:5

"Gather My saints together to Me, those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice."


Living out both the commandments of God and the faith of Yeshua is not presented in Scripture as legalistic burden, but as an active, loving walk guided by the Spirit. In Hebraic thought, truth is not merely agreed with intellectually; it is walked out (halakha).

1. Walking Exactly as Yeshua Walked
The most direct description of keeping both is modeling daily life after Yeshua Himself. Faith in Him means following His example of obedience to the Father:

1 John 2:3–6

"Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, 'I know Him,' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked."

John 14:15, 21

"If you love Me, keep My commandments... He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."

2. The Great Commandments: Love That Expresses Obedience
Yeshua summarized the Torah and the Prophets into two daily, heart-level realities: total devotion to God and genuine care for others:

Matthew 22:37–40 (Quoting the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18)

"Yeshua said to him, '“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.'"

1 John 5:2–3

"By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome."

3. Faith Working Through Daily Actions
James (Ya'akov) clarifies that the "faith of Yeshua" is living and visible. It produces tangible fruit in how we speak, work, and treat people:

James 2:17–18, 22

"Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, 'You have faith, and I have works.' Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works... Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?"

James 1:22, 27

"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves... Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world."

4. Guided and Empowered by the Ruach (Holy Spirit)
God prophesied that the New Covenant would write the commandments directly on the heart, with the Spirit providing the desire and strength to keep them:

Ezekiel 36:26–27

"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them."

Galatians 5:22–25

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no Torah. And those who are Messiah’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."

5. Justice, Mercy, and Humility
The prophets consistently remind us what the commandments look like when lived out in daily conduct:

Micah 6:8

"He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?"

Matthew 23:23

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the Torah: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone."

The Daily Picture
In practice, keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Yeshua means:

Starting from trust: Believing Yeshua's word and resting in His atonement rather than your own self-righteousness.

Speaking truth and guarding the tongue: Bringing speech into alignment with God's holiness.

Honoring God’s boundaries: Treating relationships, resources, and worship according to His instructions rather than cultural trends.

Extending mercy and justice: Actively looking for ways to protect the vulnerable, forgive grievances, and serve the people around you every day.

In biblical Hebrew, Shema (שָׁמַע, shama) is far richer than the English word "hear." In Western and Greek thought, hearing is often an intellectual or passive activity—sound waves enter the ear, the brain processes information, and the listener decides whether or not to act.

In ancient Hebraic thought, there is no separation between hearing and doing. To hear God is to obey Him; if no action follows, you haven't truly "heard" at all.

The Dual Meaning of Shema
The Hebrew language has no distinct, separate root word for "obey." Instead, whenever the Old Testament/Tanakh speaks of obeying God, the underlying word is almost always Shema (or a grammatical form of it, like shema b’kol—literally, "hearing the voice of").

Shema encompasses four simultaneous actions:

Listen closely (give undivided attention)

Understand and internalize (take the words to heart)

Yield / Agree (surrender personal agenda)

Act / Obey (put the instruction into practice)

To "Shema" God means to let what enters your ears travel through your heart and emerge through your hands and feet.

The Foundation: The Shema of Deuteronomy 6
The most defining passage centered on this word is known simply as The Shema:

"Hear [Shema], O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."

— Deuteronomy 6:4–5

Moses was not saying, "Listen up and take note of this fact." He was saying, "Hear this truth so deeply that it shapes your entire life, your loves, your devotion, and your household."

Yeshua quoted this exact passage in Mark 12:29–30 as the greatest commandment of all.

Key Scriptures Showing "Hearing" as "Obeying"
Exodus 19:5

"Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice [Hebrew: shamoa tishme'u — literally, 'hearing you will hear'] and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people..."

(The doubling of the root word emphasizes diligence: true hearing results in covenant faithfulness.)

Exodus 24:7

"Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, 'All that the LORD has said we will do, and be obedient [Hebrew: v'nishma — literally, 'and we will hear'].'"

(Israel's commitment was na'aseh v'nishma: "We will do and we will hear/obey.")

1 Samuel 15:22

"So Samuel said: 'Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying [shemoa] the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey [shemoa] is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.'"

Jeremiah 7:23

"But this is what I commanded them, saying, 'Obey [shim'u] My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.'"

Yeshua and the Apostles: The New Testament Echo of Shema
While the New Testament was written in Greek, the concepts are rooted firmly in this Hebraic understanding. Both Yeshua and His disciples repeatedly warned against separating hearing from doing:

Matthew 7:24–26 (The Wise and Foolish Builders)

"Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock... But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand."

(Yeshua highlights that hearing alone provides zero foundation; only hearing coupled with doing withstands the storm.)

Luke 11:28

"More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"

James 1:22–25

"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves... He who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does."

(James, steeped in Hebraic thought, directly restates the concept of Shema: listening without action is self-delusion.)

Why This Matters for Daily Walking
When God tells His people to "Shema," He is asking for a posture of the heart:

If a parent tells a child to clean their room, and the child says "I heard you" but never moves, the parent says, "You didn't listen to me." That is the biblical sense of Shema.

Hearing God's voice through the Spirit and the Scriptures is not about gathering trivia or theological points; it is about responsive, trust-filled movement.