Inspired

So to whatever extent God Owes us an explanation for the Bible’'s war stories, Jesus is that explanation. And Christ the King won his kingdom without war.

The point is, if you pay attention to the women, a more complex history of Israel's conquests emerges. Their stories invite the reader to consider the human cost of violence and patriarchy, and in that sense prove instructive to all who wish to work for a better world.

"The Bible looks the way it does," he concluded, "because God lets his children tell the story."

In short, when it comes to the nature of suffering and blessing the Bible does not speak with a single voice. There is not a biblical view of theodicy. There are biblical views of theodicy. And the people who wrote and assembled Scripture seemed perfectly fine times are good, be happy; but when times are with that unresolved tension. Job's friends make the mistake of assuming that what is true in one context must be true in every context-a common error among modern Bible readers who like to trawl the text for universal answers. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar said some “biblical" things in their remarks to Job, and yet in that context, those things weren't true. We should be wary, then, of grand pronouncements that begin, "The Bible says." Where? To whom? In what context? Why?

Wisdom, it seems, is situational. It isn't just about knowing what it's about knowing when to say it. And it's not just about you say; knowing what is true; it's about knowing when it's true. You reap what you sow-except when you don't.

There's just no denying that the very things for which Israel was condemned by the prophets-gross income inequality, mistreatment of immigrants and refugees, carelessness toward life, the oppression of the poor and vulnerable, and the worship of money, and violence-remain potent, prevalent sins in our culture.

The apostles remembered what many modern Christians tend to forget-that what makes the gospel offensive isn't who it keeps out but who it lets in.

Act like you believe and maybe, at long last, you will. Move your feet and your heart will catch up. It's been said that if you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat. Sometimes getting out of the boat looks like showing up for another recovery meeting. Sometimes it looks like filling out hospital paperwork for an elderly neighbor. Sometimes it looks like making a casserole for the family down with the flu or offering free babysitting for the friend with a job interview. Sometimes it looks like jumping when it matters.

The only thing that "works"-and probably only about half the time-is the long and storied spiritual discipline the sages of the faith refer to as "fake it till you make it." Go to church. Take communion. Show up at the homeless shelter. March in the protest. Pray for healing. Rebuke the chaos. Act like you believe and maybe, at long last, you will. Move your feet and your heart will catch up.

So the question for modern readers, then, is whether the point of the New Testament household codes is to reinforce the Greco-Roman household structure as God's ideal for all people, in all places, for all time, or whether the point is to encourage Christians to imitate Jesus in their relationshíps, regardless of the culture or their status in it. In a sense, the Epistles are a lot like wisdom literature, for they remind us that wisdom isn't just about knowing what is true; it's about knowing when it's true. Untangling culturally conditioned assumptions from universal truths in order to figure out how the wisdom of the Epistles might apply to us today is the task of modernday hermeneutics, and it's not an easy one.

This "scandal of particularity," he said, “is related to the essential character of human life. No one lives in general; every human life is unique. The letters of the New Testament are appropriate to the incarnation." No one lives in general-not even Christ or his church. The Christian life isn't about intellectual assent to a set of propositions, but about following Jesus in the context of actual marriages, actual communities, actual churches, actual political differences, actual budget meetings, actual cultural changes, actual racial tensions, actual theological disagreements. Like it or not, you can't be a Christian on your own. Following Jesus is a group activity, and from the beginning, it's been a messy one; it's been an incarnated one. The reason the Bible includes so many seemingly irrelevant details about donkeys falling into pits and women covering their heads and Cretans being liars and Jews and Gentiles sharing meals together 1s because, believe it or not, God cares about that stuff-because God cares about us.