I enjoy a thin slice of cheesecake two or three times a year. I am diabetic and am controlling it by diet. I wonder if I should eat cheesecake every day. The Bible says, “Do we not have the right to eat and drink?” (1 Corinthians 9:4).
The Bible is not a book of spells and incantations where coincidental wording in phrases or single words in it can be attached as proof that we can eat anything we want. We can conclude important biblical truths without resorting to this and then find the wisdom we need to address all other important issues: yea or nay. As a lifelong student of the Bible in both formal environments and in my daily practice, I am careful to use biblical texts in a way that provides an example to others on how to understand it and meditate on what it intentionally says because a responsible use of the Bible is so important for living wisely and an irresponsible use of the Bible so undermining of that wisdom (Psalm 1, James 1, Psalm 119). I follow the first two rules of interpretation.
Rule number one is to read humbly with the kind of prayer that yearns to hear from God — which means we are not going to the Bible initially in order to prove a point — any point. (We can go to the Bible to prove our points using sound practices following the rules of interpretation; but we start with humility because we want to filter out our own biases in order to hear what God has to say about those biases — whether God will speak in favor of them or not).
Rule number two is to read biblical texts in context. If the context is about something other than what you want to curiously apply it to, don’t force it! In doing so we relegate the Bible to anyone’s fancy. There is too much danger in giving the kind of example that says “I can take the Bible to say whatever I fancy it says.” We undermine what the Bible actually says when we distort how God communicates through it.
God communicates with authority and that is why we must come first with humility. He communicates logically and that is why we must read it in context. When we read the Bible in context we enter a series of contexts — as with any coherent writing. There is an immediate context in the sentence itself, and then outwardly there is consistency between that sentence and the paragraph it is in. Then that paragraph is thematically or logically consistent with the larger context of what is called a pericope. And then the essay-sized pericope makes sense in its context in the chapter where it is found and then the book that contains it. (The Bible is divided into books). And then there is an Old Testament or New Testament context (depending on which testament you are reading from). There is consistency across this large section. And finally, there is the context of the whole.
We can conclude that the Bible does not contradict itself because it does not contain statements that are contradictory to any other statement in its entire context (Genesis through Revelation). But of course, if the Bible is treated according to anyone’s fancy it would turn out to be full of contradictions because people have many contradictory fancies going on in their own individual brains. For example, some evenings I fancy that sweets would be good for me. Fortunately, on most days I understand that the sugar intake is not good for a diabetic. But on those odd and infrequent evenings I can convince myself that it is the truth that my body will not be adversely damaged in the least by partaking of cheesecake. I might even entertain the thought that I might as well eat it everyday. But I refuse to go to a phrase in the Bible (such a phrase as “Do we not have the right to eat and drink?”) and pull the words out of their context and assume it is trumping what my medical doctors have been telling me. Some might say that it is unfortunate; but the phrase in question is absolutely and in no way giving evidence that this is actually the truth and that it will result in wise living for me to eat cheesecake everyday!
W. Stephen Williams © All Rights Reserved July 20, 2024