We’ve played with this banter for a few years now, but underneath it all is a conviction we both have that God designs all biblical study to be a “useful” process that leads us to the Bible in such a way that it creates a person who loves God and loves others. Anything less fails to achieve why God speaks to us in the Bible. God’s got a mission in giving us the Bible, and that mission is “useful.”
Paul too knew the Bible was designed to be “useful.” “All Scripture,” he wrote, “is God-breathed and is useful for . . .” (2 Timothy 3:16, emphasis added). Missional listeners discover we are in a process of being transformed from what we are into what God wants us to be. Here’s the process:
We become informed;
we get rebuked;
we are restored; and
we become instructed in righteousness.6
If we are committed to missional listening to God as we read the Bible, we will learn, we will be rebuked about our failures, and we will be restored. What is the outcome of this process? Righteousness. To be “righteous” means our minds, our wills, and our behaviors will be conformed to God’s will. It means holiness, goodness, love, justice, and good works.
It takes time, but missional listening leads to righteousness.
Missional Listening Blossoms into a Life of Good Works
“ . . . SO THAT the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:17).7 The divine outcome, the divine “so that” of missional listening to the God of the Bible is good works. Any reading and any interpretation that does not lead to good works, both as the practical application and as the behavioral result, aborts what the Bible is designed to produce. I know, “aborts” is a strong word, but we need such a word here. God’s “so that” is “good works.”
What are good works? Peter urged the Christians in Asia Minor to be benevolent in their cities; Paul exhorted the Roman Christians to love their neighbors as themselves; John urged his readers to walk in the light and to love one another; James reminded followers of Jesus to care for widows and orphans, to feed the hungry, and to clothe the naked. Good works are concrete responses to the needs we see in our neighbors.
I don’t think any person reading this book wonders what good works are. The question is not what they are but whether we are doing them. This passage written by Paul in 2 Timothy 3:17 leads me to the following two conclusions—and they stare at each of us:
If you are doing good works, you are reading the Bible aright.
If you are not doing good works, you are not reading the Bible aright.
If you are in the first group, keep it up; if you are in the second group, make some changes.
Earlier in this chapter I likened missional listening to sliding down a waterslide at a theme park. The slide is the gospel, the walls of that slide are the Bible and our wise mentors (tradition), and the water is the Holy Spirit. I also said that our joy, our delight, our challenge is to enter the slide, to enter the Bible as Story, and to let it take us where we are supposed to go. When that happens, we become people of good works.
I want to turn now to the landing, to what happens to us when we slide down the waterslide. Where will we land? How do we land? Our landing in the water is a process of discernment of learning how to fly from the story of the Bible into our world. Each of us, in fellowship with our community of faith, is called to enter the slide and follow its faithful contours so we can land in the water of our world.
PART 3
DISCERNING
How Do I Benefit from the Bible?
Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
The apostle Paul, according to 1 Corinthians 9:19–23
For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way.
The apostle Paul, according to Colossians 1:9–10
CHAPTER 9
THE YEAR OF LIVING JESUS-LY
What Do We Do and What Do We Not Do?
So how do we apply the Bible to our lives? How do we live out the story of the Bible today? Do we open up a passage, read it, and live it just as it says? Most will admit that it’s not that easy, at least not all the time.
Let’s take a quick look in our Bibles at Leviticus 19. Somehow we know what to “pick” and what to “choose” and what “not to pick” and what “not to choose” when we read this chapter. (If you do this in a class, which I have done, ask everyone to vote on those they think we should do and those they think we shouldn’t do. You might be surprised by the results.) I call this list of blue parakeet commandments from Leviticus 19 . . .
The Commands We Mostly Don’t Keep
Check the boxes of the commands you believe we should observe today.
1. Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy (19:2).
2. You must observe my Sabbaths. I am the LORD your God (19:3).
3. When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the LORD your God (19:9–10).
4. Do not go about spreading slander among your people (19:16).
5. Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed. Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material (19:19).
6. Do not eat any meat with the blood still in it (19:26).
7. Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard (19:27).
8. Do not . . . put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD (19:28).
9. Stand up in the presence of the aged (19:32).
10. Keep all my decrees and all my laws and follow them. I am the LORD (19:37).
Other than #1 and #4, most of us don’t follow any of these commands literally. Think about this list carefully because it really does make us rethink how we read the Bible.
• We don’t keep the Sabbath (Friday night sundown to Saturday night sundown; Sunday is not the same as Sabbath).
• We don’t harvest only some of our crops (if we even harvest).
• We don’t worry about planting two kinds of seed (if we plant at all).
• We don’t worry about wearing garments made of more than one substance—cotton and polyester blends, for example (if we even pay attention).
• We don’t hesitate to eat medium to rare meats (unless vegetarian).
• We don’t have moral issues in cutting our earlocks (at least I don’t).
• We (most of us that is) don’t think tattoos are sinful.
• We don’t always (or ever!) stand up when older folks walk into the room.
These ten commands are never part of a discipleship program; yet they are commanded by God in the Bible. Furthermore, it’s not like Moses is just giving a few good suggestions for special students who want to imitate him. In fact, these commandments are propped up with a profoundly theological comment—“I am the LORD your God.” And they all start with an even more profound comment: “because I, the LORD your God, am holy.” Moses anchors these commands in the holiness of God. Since God’s holiness doesn’t change, doesn’t it make sense to think God’s rules for his people don’t change either?
The quick answer to this question is that w
hile God’s holiness doesn’t change, his will for his people does. This, then, leads to one of my favorite questions: How do we know which of those commandments change and which ones don’t? How do we choose? Who gets to choose? When is there to be conservation and when is there to be innovation?
Either we are completely wrong in our dismissal of these commands, or we have some categories in our Christian minds to help us know what to apply to our lives and what not to apply. (I think it is the second option.) To make this more complex, in spite of near-universal dismissal of most of these commandments, some Christians disagree on which of the ten to follow and which not to follow, so some have practiced these since the beginning of the church. Still, most of us would wipe most of these commandments off our moral map. Why? Here I give some typical answers:
They are from a bygone era.
They are from the Old Testament.
They are from Leviticus.
They are from what many call the Holiness Code.
They are from ceremonial codes and we follow only the moral codes.
They are fulfilled in Christ (which might mean any number of things).
Or they provide another set of reasons that really say, “That was then, but this is now.”
Oddly enough, smack-dab in the middle of this chapter is Leviticus 19:18, one of Jesus’s and the early church’s favorite commands: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Somehow we know, perhaps because Jesus and the early Christians repeated it so often, that this command applies to us but many of the others don’t. How do we know this?
Essentially, the church has always taught that the times have changed and we have learned from New Testament patterns of discernment what to do and what not to do. Often it is easy; sometimes we have to have a discussion but can agree. Other times it gets difficult. So . . .
What about Sex before Marriage?
Most of us believe that premarital sexual intercourse is contrary to God’s will. The New Testament doesn’t say a thing about this. However, we know the prohibition in Exodus 22:16–17 and Deuteronomy 22:28–29, we believe premarital sexual intercourse is wrong, and we conclude that the laws of the Old Testament prohibiting such are to be applied today. Exodus comes at this from a specific angle, the angle of the disgruntled father of the seduced virgin:
If a man seduces a virgin who is not pledged to be married and sleeps with her, he must pay the bride-price, and she shall be his wife. If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, he must still pay the bride-price for virgins.
The Old Testament teaches that premarital intercourse is wrong (we accept that), and it obligates the couple to marriage (we’re not sure about that one). We like the father’s choice, and some of us wish the woman would get a voice in this text. But overall we think this text gets it permanently right. To make this point abundantly clear to university students in whom hormones are pounding into one another, I often say that there is no such thing as “premarital” intercourse in the Bible. Intercourse, I show them from this text, constitutes the sexual union that we call marriage. Perhaps it is an overcooked way of saying it, but I get my point across.
Every now and then a historically minded student will ask questions like this: “Well, didn’t they marry younger? Isn’t it harder for us?” What the student is saying is this: “Haven’t the times changed?” What they are implying is this: “Is the regulation the same for us?” I think that’s a good question.
Listen to this letter from a reader of my blog, Dianne Parsons, who also knows that the times have changed since the times of the Bible and that these changes, she is suggesting, have enormous implications for the sexual temptations of young adults.
I would like to see someone thoughtfully address the issue [in today’s culture] of the gap of many years between the age of sexual maturity and age at which people enter into marriage. Assuming sexual maturity between age 10 and 15 (and often earlier) and marriage between 25 and 30, there is anywhere between 10 and 20 years of the strongest hormonal influence on sexuality. Yet churches still preach celibacy [she means the traditional view of waiting until marriage] with a straight face to the emerging generation, who mostly turn away.
I see four options for those in the emerging generation:
1) Remain celibate for one to two decades of the most sexually intense time of their lives;
2) Marry at a much earlier age than their contemporaries;
3) Stay away from church [and engage in intercourse] until married and/or with children;
4) Attend church and compartmentalize that part of their life and keep sexual intercourse “private.”
A few choose #1, but let’s be honest, most do not. Statistically, it’s clear that many do not choose #2, except for those at seminary or Christian colleges. So what about all the others? Do ministry leaders assume that many in the emerging generation can or will be convinced to join group #1? How? By simply preaching “just say no”?
Dianne then asks what I think is a fundamental question that those who want to learn how to “apply” the Bible today are asking:
How can we take a Bible that forbids sex outside of marriage, that was written in a time where there was little or no time that passed between sexual maturity and marriage, and apply it to today’s situation? I see this as a significant challenge in ministering to the emerging generation, and I don’t see it discussed much.
There it is. Some think of the Bible like this: “God says it, I believe it, that settles it.” They treat the Bible the way many treat a troubleshooting chart at the back of a manual.
Problem: Premarital sexual temptation.
Solution: Just say no!
Response: “That was then, and it is also now!”
Others, however, are pressing the issue from a different angle. They say something like this as they approach the Bible as a troubleshooting chart:
Problem: Work on the Sabbath.
Solution: Keep the Sabbath by going to church or by taking one day off from work!
Response: “That was then, but this is now!”
With a genuine cry of the heart as well as a genuine intellectual question, these same persons get together and ask one another, “Why do we say the rule about premarital sex is to be applied but not the Sabbath one?” They are really asking this question: “Was the prohibition of premarital intercourse shaped exclusively for a culture in which young adults got married at the onset of puberty?”
If you think these are easy questions to answer, I would recommend getting your ear closer to the ground. The issue of “applying” the Bible is not that simple. We are learning that there’s a lot more discerning going on than we thought. It is all about adopting and adapting, and we need to get our leaders together to start thinking more about this.
A Year of Living Biblically
The inspiration for this book came from years of reading, wondering, living, and teaching the Bible. The inspiration for this next section comes from A. J. Jacobs’s funny, insightful, and suggestive (for me) book, The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible.1 Jacobs grew up in an “extremely secular home” and is “officially Jewish.” But he confesses, “I’m Jewish in the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant. Which is to say: not very.” He continues, “The closest my family came to observing Judaism was that paradoxical classic of assimilation: a Star of David on top of our Christmas tree!”2
Jacobs decided to see what it would be like to live for an entire year by observing the Bible literally. “Millions of Americans say they take the Bible literally,” he observes. But, “according to a 2005 Gallup poll, the number hovers near 33 percent; a 2004 Newsweek poll put it at 55 percent.” What did Jacobs think?
But my suspicion was that almost everyone’s literalism consisted of picking and choosing. People plucked out the parts that fit their agenda, whether that agenda was to the right or to the left. Not me. I thought, with some naïveté, I would peel away the layers of interpr
etation and find the true Bible underneath. I would do this by being the ultimate fundamentalist. I’d be fearless. I would do exactly what the Bible said, and in so doing, I’d discover what’s great and timeless in the Bible and what is outdated.”3
For five hours each day over four months, Jacobs reads the whole Bible—from Genesis to Revelation. Every time he comes upon a commandment, he types it into his Apple PowerBook. (He’s with the angels on that one!) Seventy-two pages long, more than seven hundred rules. As he reads, he realizes something if he practices every commandment: “All aspects of my life will be affected.” He ruminates, “I’ll be the Gandhi of the Upper West Side.” Some will make him weird: “Bathe after sex. Don’t eat the fruit from a tree planted less than five years ago. Pay the wages of a worker every day.” Some of the commandments are, in fact, banned by law: “Kill magicians.” He’s right: “This is going to be a monster project.”4
You get the picture. If you want more, read his book. It’s delightful. The whole book is a blue parakeet. It will make you rethink how we read the Bible.
The Blue Parakeet, 2nd Page 12