First Get A Commitment To Practice The Truth; Then Discuss The Details

Have you noticed until one is fully committed to do what Jesus says on something without compromise (Luke 14:33), he won’t properly understand the details of what is right or wrong to do based upon that particular Bible instruction, because he will never think about it with an approach serious enough to decide correctly? It seems the Pharisees had that problem: Possibly because they were hypocrites (Matthew 23) they were in the habit of making up rules for the Sabbath that were never in the law of Moses (John 9:16, Matt 12:2, Luke 13:14, 14:3ff, John 5:10,16, 7:23). I am pretty sure things would have been different if they had been fully committed to following God’s old law just as it was written.

Modern day illustrations of this same problem …

Have you ever been talking to an advocate of sprinkling for baptism and they ask you something like “if you are right, what happens to a person if their pinky accidently stays above the water and nobody notices?” Now I am in 100% in favor of being careful to make sure a person is completely submerged (every body part no matter how small goes under) when they are baptized, but I am not going to let the fact that someone’s pinky may have been unknowingly left out every hundred years scare me into believing sprinkling for baptism is scriptural (Rom 6:4-5); what about you?

What about discussing with someone about modest apparel and they say “if you take I Tim 2:9-10 literally and therefore bikinis are wrong, then ladies all have to dress like Muslim women with a burka – their head and face covered and their dress down to the floor. I think we can all sense this argument is just an excuse to get around the fact the Bible does require dressing modestly (Matt 5:28), so don’t fall for their ungodly tactic.

Usually only a Christian who believes God’s I Cor 11:2-16 coverings instruction is still binding will have the proper attitude to determine the scriptural details of how to practice it – like when and where and how much should be covered, and how long is long when it comes to hair length? One who is against the covering requirement to start with has a tendency to decide those details in a way only to make an excuse against the binding validity of the covering itself today (Prov 14:12). Don’t get me wrong; we should discuss those details, but that is only constructive when one is committed to practicing God’s covering requirement – no matter what it necessitates.

People that are scripturally withdrawn from (I Cor 5) almost never agree with “how” they were withdrawn from (the details of the procedure and/or the reason). If you don’t know this, I am thinking it must be because you have never withdrawn from anybody (II Thess 3:6). Children are the same way when they are punished (Heb 12:11). They say things like “you are punishing me the wrong way” or “I shouldn’t be punished in this case” or “you didn’t spank my little sister for this other transgression.” These withdrawal details do need to be discussed … by folks who are committed to the Lord enough to practice withdrawal (Matt 16:24-26). Most aren’t thus committed, so they make excuses (in the details) for not complying.

Actually believers today do the same thing on many issues – too numerous to name. When they are not committed to the hermeneutic “the Bible means what it says,” they will make up all kinds of rules about how to implement a requirement if if if Jesus meant what he actually said. Their purpose is not because they are looking for an honest investigation of how to practice the Bible requirement in question (why should they?; they don’t even believe it must be practiced), but instead they are trying to justify themselves for not practicing the truth in its plain sense. Unfortunately, any time somebody else is practicing the truth and we aren’t, there is a tendency for us to feel guilty (John 7:7) and try to justify ourselves with “well they are not really practicing the truth on this either.”

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