Then one day, I read it in context. Here it is in the ESV.
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20Do not despise prophecies, 21but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22Abstain from every form of evil.
Don't despise prophecies. Instead, test them and hold on to the ones that past the test. But when evil appears, stay away from it. This Scripture has nothing to do with avoiding things that give the appearance of evil. Instead, it is a warning against evil itself. When evil appears, abstain.
When it finally dawned on me from Scripture that I had been obsessed with a spiritual standard that God Himself did not hold, it ticked me off. I was a teenager. I trusted those in spiritual leadership over me to correctly teach me the Word. And I became a bit of a polite cynic. Is that REALLY what Scripture says? I want a preacher to take his time accurately handling the Word. And I lose respect quickly when someone is sloppy with Scripture.
Fast forward to today. I have just realized that I have assumed, based on sloppy handling of the Scripture on both my part and others, a wrong application of Scripture. The verse in question is I Tim. 5:8.
8But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
My assumption was that this is talking about men providing financially for their families. Except that I did a quick study this morning just to realize that it doesn't address "any man" but "anyone". There is no specific gender implied at the beginning of verse 8. I need someone with a greater knowledge of Greek than I to tell me where "he" comes from in the 2nd part of the verse. Is specific gender implied in the Greek or is it just the choice of the translator?
But even more than that, the context of this verse in chapter 5 is the care of widows.
3Honor widows who are truly widows. 4But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God. 5She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, 6but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. 7 Command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach. 8But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
Hands down, this is about families taking care of their own. Anyone who doesn't provide for the needy relatives in their own household is worse than an unbeliever.
As I read this in context, I think it's a bit of a cop out if I only assign application to my husband bringing home the bread to pay our bills. This has application for me as well.
But in an even larger sense, this reminds me that I need to handle Scripture accurately. I need to value understanding the meaning in context of Scripture before I open my mouth and most certainly before I make judgements of others. We will never make the case for Christ to unbelievers with skewed interpretations of Scripture. Only the weak minded will follow and they'll be snatched away in the first heat of the sun. Anyone with a lick of discernment will smell the foul air and distrust anything else you say. We MUST be accurate with Scripture.
4 comments:
Thanks for commenting, Ellis. :-) And reading. And linking to the blog.
This passage can be easy to twist without respect for the broader context, as you pointed out. For several years my family and I were actually given home by my grandmother, who was (ironically) a widow. She had a home that she owned and when my parents had no jobs and we got evicted Grandma was the one who was in a position to help us when no one else could or would. Not forsaking family when you can provide for them is a broader principle than a lot of preachers and teachers want it to be. For our part we encouraged Grandma to remarry when she found a great man who loved the Lord and loved her. Sometimes the widow can actually be better off than her own children in this day and age. There is a big danger in conflating a method with a principle here, as can often happen. I think that my Grandma adhered to the principle even though the application of the biblical principle would, in the eyes of many teachers, directly contradict the prescribed method.
It seems clear to me that in terms of the perspecuity of Scripture and Christ's teaching on care for family that His condemnation of the "corban" tradition is the passage that would highlight what Paul is urging Timothy to deal with. Abusing the community of faith and rituals surrounding the worship of Christ should not be used as a way to forsake one's duty in Christ to help those in need, particularly family.
in other words, good post. :) I think I was blessed to have a multigenerational family setting of the sort Paul would have been addressing as a way to have a different perspective on this passage than a lot of Americans who had the nuclear family. There are a lot of ways in which being a modern Westerner blinds us to practical realities that Paul assumed that are required for us to properly understand the biblical text.
This is one of my pet hates. Context is one of the most important points in interpreting the Bible rightly, I think. My husband wrote a little 'Bible Study' once to 'prove' the existence of zombie vampire dogs (!) which was based on the mis-use of biblical texts. The point was, obviously, to show how important understanding the context of a verse is. It was a brilliant way to make the point.
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. (Jer 29:11-12)
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chron 7:4)
These are the ones I get very tired of hearing quoted out of context. I hear them mis-used very often to imply that God will bless us, in particular if we pray. While the principles may not be wrong - that we should pray and turn to God etc, they're just used so very frequently without noticing that they're written specifically of Israel and the events going on in THEIR land, not whatever land the reader is now reading from.
Bec
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