There is a tendency to negate Biblical commands by God under the premise that the context was directed exclusively toward the time in which the illustration or instruction took place. Of course we no longer consider many of the civil and ceremonial laws of the Old Testament (OT) to be applicable today. However, when Jesus said “I have come to fulfill the law” (Matthew 5:17), that did not preclude the continuance of OT moral laws. More significantly, the New Testament contains many expectations from its singular Author that we should be held to today.
One method of escaping God’s commands is to suggest that moral commands must be viewed within their historical context. This is true to an extent, but one must be very careful not to dig so deep into the events and issues surrounding Biblical illustrations that we miss the forest (Biblical principles) for the trees (it no longer applies to us today). The Bible is more longitudinal in its scope rather than being limited by the local context from which it was written. If that were not true, then a two thousand-year old (plus) moral guidebook would have little meaning for us today.
To be more clear, we received a comment from a reader that challenged Paul’s assertion that homosexuality was a sin by attempting to narrow his application to Paul’s immediate surroundings. The specific verse under review was…
Romans 1:26-27 - For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
This was sparked by our recent post Sharing God’s Truth on Homosexuality.
Quoting from the reader’s comment…
“That notorious ‘clobber passage’ from Romans has a social context. Remember that Paul was planting/forming groups of new Christians in the towns and cities of the Greco-Roman world. His converts came from a pagan polytheist culture. This culture allowed for sanctioned “zones” of polyamory (including orgies) and crossing sexual boundaries from one gender to the other. This was especially evident during urban festivals which were notorious for their copious consumption of “sacred” alcohol, followed by sexual debauchery. I believe THIS is more of what Paul had in mind when promoting heterosexual norms. But we should be cautious about claiming Paul believed in the kind sexual tolerance that we see in our time. That is the task of today’s church.”
Of course Romans was not the only book in the Bible that references sexual immorality in the context of homosexual behavior. And, we should be quick to point out that we are ALL sinners, both the saved and the lost, so grace must take priority over legalism. However, the point is that the concept of sin as defined by Paul and others who penned God’s inerrant Word should not be watered down or worse, cast aside, by narrowing its impact through historical filters.
To conclude, as the writer above did, “the task of today’s church” is to bring to light what constitutes sin in today’s world and contrast it with the perfection of God’s ideal. This, as long as we remember Paul’s lament that even he could not escape the reality of continuing sin in his life.
Romans 7:22-25 - For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Salvation – Eternal Life in Less Than 150 Words
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