Oh my we do get ourselves into all kinds of jiggery pokeries when we try to work out what is right and what is wrong.
Thou shalt not kill / murder (Exod. 20:13)
Seemed appropriate to use the thee / thous there as it just adds such a weight to it all!!! Then down the centuries the ‘just war theory’ has developed; an ‘ah yes but…’ response to not killing. (Attributed to Augustine of Hippo but within many ancient cultures prior to Augustine – in Egypt, Greece, Rome and beyond.) Then to make it all a bit harder for us all killing an animal for food in the wrong way was counted as bloodshed in ancient Israel,
If anyone of the house of Israel slaughters an ox or a lamb or a goat in the camp or slaughters it outside the camp and does not bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, to present it as an offering to the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord, he shall be held guilty of bloodshed; he has shed blood, and he shall be cut off from the people (Lev. 17:3,4).
And given nothing can atone for the shedding of blood,
You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it (Num. 35:33).
the person ‘murdering’ an animal was expelled from the covenant people.
Discerning what is right and wrong is not so easy at times, and not so easy as the law was a gift to Israel and cannot be divided into moral, ceremonial and civil law… it was one whole package to regulate life and practice in Israel. Legalism pulls us back to the tree of knowledge of good and evil, so if we are pursuing the tree of life what might be some of the considerations? Here I present 3 guiding principles that might be considered. See what you think – relational, eschatological and redemptive.
Relational
So then, putting away falsehood, let each of you speak the truth with your neighbor, for we are members of one another.
Put away falsehood – so much stronger than ‘don’t lie’. It is possible not to lie but to leave a false impression, defending ourselves with ‘I never said that’. Speech is central but there is something deeper going on here. ‘Falsehood’ is also translated as ‘deception’, so there is a deep call to live transparently where the gap between what is private and what is public is increasingly getting smaller. It has to include self-deception, for any level of self-deception / lack of self-honesty will be reflected in how we present to others.
For we are members of one another. Not even ‘we are fellow members of a group’ but inter-connected to others. There is a relational dynamic at the heart of this requirement. It amazes me how many times we do not connect the dots. We can complain about the lack of honesty in our world but have opportunity to be transparent and pass it up. When Gayle and I first moved to Oliva we had a knock on the door. A neighbour…. after the initial ‘hola, estamos vecinos…’ came ‘how much did you pay for the apartment?’ What an opportunity. So I started with figures. He stopped me and left to come back two minutes later with pen and paper so he could write everything down. Price paid, tax to government, renovations made etc. Totalled it and looked at his wife with first a finger indicating Gayle and I then a hand on his chest indicating them. ‘They are rich, we are poor.’ I said ‘correct’. They had two cars, we had been without a car for 5 years; we had one apartment, they had 5 properties. We were truly rich and they poor (as perceived within themselves) and we are rich in the global scene. I chose to give them all the details as our intention was how can we live here transparently… if ever they and other neighbours are to share our faith they have to see our lives – the good, the bad and the ugly.
Eschatological
We are to give an answer for the hope that is in us… how then are we to live in the light of the coming of the Lord… we will all be judged by what we have done… masters treat your slaves well for you have a master in heaven… Eschatology might be the study of the end but the resurrection and outpoured Spirit means what is to come is being tasted now. We live as aliens in this world as we belong now to another (a new) creation. This is not a mandate to believe this ‘world is not my home I am just a passing through’ but to live from that coming – and what has already come – age in the here and now. What do we see of that coming age, for that has to shape our responses now. No outsiders; always a fresh opportunity; no tears; destruction; devastation… and so we can add to those descriptions. If it does not exist in the age to come we cannot justify it in this age as being something we accept. This was the driving element in the abolition of slavery, the freedom of the genders… and of course in our current scene something that has to be central in any consideration regarding discussions on same-sex relationships. Beyond Scripture is the call of Scripture!! [Please don’t read contra-Scripture into that statement.]
This eschatological aspect is why we have to go so far beyond the goal of getting people over a line, so that they are ‘born again’. Living in an old creation or in a new creation is surely the marker, and we can so easily slip back into what we think is ‘the world we live in’.
Redemptive
Can we always do what is right, in the sense of what is ‘perfect’? That is like asking can we unscramble eggs and put them back in the egg-shell. Thank God for redemption, not for perfection. Life goes wrong; circumstances come along that are far from ideal. Our choice as we get involved is to try and find the most redemptive way forward. That is nearly always what nurtures the relationship, amidst the mess that cannot be neatly resolved. If we do not do this we lose relationship on the basis of ‘we are holding to a principle that we know is right’. We see this right from the beginning, (though myth it might be, but so strong in theology) when Adam and Eve left the garden God left with them and became visible on the road to Emmaus; the sentence of death something that God carried with them… and moving forward to Cain, rather than God pronounce the law over Cain for murder God covered and protected Cain (another reason why we cannot look the law as an absolute).
If we stop asking what is the right thing but what is the most redemptive way forward we will be acting eschatologically and relationally… I consider that is more closely aligned to the tree of life and will enable us to stop looking at the fruit that looks good to eat, that fruit that will make us like ‘god’… and perhaps as we do that we will become slightly more god-like ‘accidentally’!