Ceremonial, Civic, and Moral Law ~ a breakdown of the laws of the Old Testament

I heard about this accusation on social media where someone said about Christians, "Your Scriptures tell you to not eat pig, and yet you eat bacon, pork, and ham." Basically, they are accusing us of being hypocrites. Now, I know that that law (and many others) no longer apply, while some laws (the 10 Commandments) do apply. But I would never have been able to explain the distinction to a non-believer and they would have called me a hypocrite for picking and choosing what I wanted out of the Bible.

The idea is this - when we talk about "the Law", we are really discussing three different things. I am only going to talk about ceremonial and moral law, since that is what I just learned about.

CEREMONIAL LAW
This is the laws you find in Leviticus and those books. Laws about what you can and cannot eat, sacrifices, rules and regulations about the temple and worship... stuff like that. Jesus kept all of these laws perfectly when He was here on earth. He fulfilled all that those laws required and we no longer have to follow them. (See Acts 10:9-16 for an example). 

MORAL LAW
The moral law is the Ten Commandments. Yes, Jesus fulfilled them and kept them perfectly, but we still must obey them. If you are unfamiliar with the Ten Commandments, here they are:

³ “You shall have no other gods before^[a] me.

⁴ “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ⁵ You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶ but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

⁷ “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

¹² “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

¹³ “You shall not murder.

¹⁴ “You shall not commit adultery.

¹⁵ “You shall not steal.

¹⁶ “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

¹⁷ “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

Exodus 20:3-17

 This law is still applicable to us today. The laws about the temple are not because a) we don't have a temple and b) God lives in every believer now, so we have no need. The laws about the sacrifices are irrelevant because Jesus sacrificed Himself; the ultimate perfect Lamb. Many of the food restrictions were because God knew things would make them sick or kill them because of disease or lack of proper storage or proper preparation. But in the Acts passage, God makes all creatures "clean", or good to eat. 

I can see how people would be confused. I honestly didn't know the distinction in the Law either. And this is a simplified version. It is actually much more complicated according to my pastor. But hopefully now you have an idea of how we can not "follow the Law" and yet not be hypocritical about saying people need to "follow the Law". We are each talking about a different part of the Law.