The devil's in the context

Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:32

Seems like a simple passage, short and easy to understand, right? Yet, with these 12 words lie in a gulf of differences in Christianity itself. People much smarter then me have tried to figure out what truth is since men could use words. Truth has such a simple seeming definition, yet the ideological differences as to what truth means is sometimes a matter of life and death.

Try this little experiment with the people around you. Ask them "Is it always best to be truthful"? Chances are, most people will give you an emphatic yes.

We have many scriptural references pointing to the idea that truth is always the best choice.

The king said to him, "How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?" 1 kings 22:16

Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment.Proverbs 12:19

The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful. Proverbs 12:21-23

We also have many scriptural references pointing to how bad lying is.

keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. Psalm 34:12-14

A truthful witness gives honest testimony, but a false witness tells lies. Proverbs 12:16-18

The remnant of Israel will do no wrong; they will speak no lies, nor will deceit be found in their mouths. They will eat and lie down and no one will make them afraid." Zephaniah 3:12-14

So with the scriptural argument I've given above, seems pretty simple, right? Lying= always bad, Truth=always good. But, as I love to throw wrenches into the works of machinery, lets take a real life example. Your home eating a meal with your family, a nice man knocks on your door and asks you to please let him in, he's hiding from the authorities. You take this man in your house and keep him there. The authorities later knock on your door asking if you are harboring any fugitives. Your mind takes you back to the scriptures about truth and lies. Seems straightforward that to lie is not ever acceptable, correct? But, a little voice in the back of your mind (call it your conscience, call it the Holy Spirit) tells you to lie. You choke back your original thoughts and tell the authorities no. The year is 1942, your last name is Ten Boom, ring any bells? With that one lie, you have saved that one man, and you go on to save countless others from the fate of death.

While I am not a learned minister, I feel pretty confident there are not any places in the bible where it says it's okay to lie to save lives, etc. If I am wrong, please by all means let me know. So this leaves us in a quandary. Here we have passages in black and white saying lying is not good, and the truth is always right. Yet, I think we can all agree God would not look down upon us for that lie, because it was done to protect life.

And herein lies the division of truth for many people, the context principle. Simply stated "The meaning of a word or passage should never be taken in isolation, but in the context of the whole document itself." So to me, it means scriptures should not lie in isolation, but in the living breathing context of the bible and the world around us. Let me give you a few examples where when the principle of context is taken out of the equation, all kinds of weird ideas spring up. Please understand, I don't mean to insult anyone's faith or views but these are things I personally feel are taken totally out of context with the overall theme of the bible.

These examples are ones I could find that only appeared in a very FEW verses. I know many people may disagree with my views, so please feel free to leave comments, I will do my best to try and reply. Birthday Parties are bad because John the Baptist was beheaded on Herod's birthday. Homosexuality is horrible. Even when looking up references, I had to discard some because they only applied to rape, prostitution, etc. Even then I could really only find 4 verses that were non-specific. So even at the highest number, it's mentioned 8 times in a quasi-contextual way.

We need to be careful as Christians when we spout rhetoric about what God wants us to be and do just based on a few passages that only survive when taken out of the context of the bible itself. It leads to some strange, and sometimes dangerous world views that have implications far beyond what we can directly perceive.

Tomorrow, I will carry through the theme of context when I discuss an issue no one really likes to discuss, but it's an important issue...Abortion