In God’s plan, the Gospel was to be preached first to the Jews (Acts 3:26; Romans 1:16). Therefore, Paul made a habit of going to where the Jews were meeting. Their meeting place was at the synagogue on the Sabbath (Acts 13:14, 42, 44; 16:13; 17:1-2; 18:4). Are these passages about the continuation of the Sabbath for Christians? Look again. In each case, these were not the Christian meetings. They were Jewish meetings. Paul attended in order to bring Jews and others to belief in Jesus as the promised Messiah. Paul’s attendance usually did not last long in each town. The Jews usually rejected Paul and his message about Christ.
The Jews persecuted Paul wherever he went. Hostile patterns like these, along with growing numbers of Gentile converts, led to the widening gap between the church and Jewish ways. Even Jewish Christians had difficulty continuing Jewish life because unbelieving Jews increasingly rejected them. Acts 21:26-36 gives an example of how Paul was attacked while carrying on Jewish customs in the temple. The letter to the Hebrews mentions such persecutions (Hebrews 10:32- 34), and urges its readers, “Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach He endured.” (Hebrews 13:13). Hebrews, written mainly to Jewish Christians, is the strongest statement of the difference between the Old and New Covenant. It draws sharp lines of distinction between Christianity and Judaism. It repeatedly emphasizes the “weak and useless” nature of the law’s regulations (Hebrews 7:18 cf. Hebrews 7:28; 8:7, 13; 10:1-11).
“Let us go to Him outside the camp.”
In A.D. 70, the Romans destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, which threw all of Judaism into chaos. Jewish Christians had less and less of the old ways to which to cling. As for Gentile Christians, there is no record in Scripture of them adopting parts of the Jewish law. Paul, for example, urged them not to be circumcised (1 Corinthians 7:18; Galatians 2:3).