FAMILY FAITH:Consider context when applying Bible passages to life

For some time now, I have considered the fact that while we must use the Bible as our universal truth on which to model our lives, the people and families written about within the Bible were at best dysfunctional.

While I am a firm believer that the Word of God must be opened and used in our public meetings and applied to our personal life, I also believe we must take into account the grace Jesus brought us in the New Testament.

One ought to also take the context and historical setting into consideration before we rigidly apply it to our lives today. To ignore this practice is ignorance. Biblical hermeneutics requires that we take into account the circumstance, historical settings and a passage’s place within the particular book we are studying. In doing so, we find the true meaning. Now, let us consider some of the strange people the Bible speaks of.

Look at the first man who introduced polygamy. Good old Lamech. Genesis 4:19 records his marrying two women. Lamech was the seventh from Adam in the line of Cain. He was a haughty man multiplying his wives to try and control God’s blessing in Genesis 1:28 where God tells man to be fruitful and multiply. God’s design was monogamy from the beginning. Lamech was a manipulator.

Then there are the ideas of the Kinsman Redeemer demonstrated in the book of Ruth. People are not obligated these days to marry their dead relative’s spouses. We would consider this odd, but it was a cultural practice back then.

Then there is Esther, who manipulated her husband to achieve God’s divine plan. King David was a man after God’s own heart who manipulated the death of another man in order to marry his wife.

Many of these scenarios include cultural practices at the time or simply the “rights” people held in that day; just as we have laws and rights in our present day.

Nowadays, we often give advice as pastors that life has to be a certain “biblical” way and there is no deviance from it. I used to believe this rigidly and observed people suffer. But then I witnessed people in abusive relationships being told to “stay married because God hates divorce.” Women were being physically and psychologically abused.

Once I began to study the integration of psychology and theology, I realized what domestic violence was. Child abuse is against the law. Yet pastors were giving advice to people to stay married because this was “an attack of Satan.” What will it take for people to be free? Death at the hand of an abuser?

What I am touching upon today, and I realize it is a delicate subject, is that we need to abide by the laws of the land and the safety and sanctity of human life. Our advice as Christians cannot be as cliché as it is “Satan” and people need to tough it out. We are dealing with humanity here.

Let us use wisdom in the advice we give and realize that common sense must be applied as Christians. We need to be educated. I know quite a few divorced and remarried pastors. Cannot this grace be extended to those in our congregation who are dealing with affairs, abuse and addictions on the parts of their spouse?

Because just as there were cultural practices in biblical times, the practice of our law today warrants the safety of human beings, sometimes more than our churches are able to give out. Often, we judge instead of protect. People have to go against pastors and reach for the law to protect them.

Sanctity should be found from our brothers and sisters in Christ as well. God never intended for anyone to stay and be physically or psychologically abused, or live at the hands of an addict of infidelity.

We must stop using the Bible to make ourselves comfortable. Yes, its truths are universal and ageless. But use context and God’s grace. He wants people safe and healthy.

THE REV. KIMBERLIE ZAKARIAN can be reached by e-mail at holyhouse9@aol.com or by mail at Holy House Ministries c/o the Rev. Kimberlie Zakarian, 9641 Tujunga Canyon Blvd., Tujunga, CA 91042.