Recovering the Lost Legacy

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 Why Should We Care about Ancient Laws?

For years now, Christians have been arguing about sex (and other kinds of sin). The fight usually involves whether or not a particular activity is allowed for those living by the standards in the Bible. People argue about which parts of the Bible can be used as an authority to guide modern life. One pastor friend of mine asked, “How can we tell which commands in the Old Testament we still need to obey? After all, I have more than one kind of fiber in my shirt, and no one seems to have a problem with that.”

This question haunted me, and I brought it to a class I was taking with Christian students from Andover Newton Theological School and Jewish students from Hebrew College. I asked a rabbinic student in the class, “How can we tell which laws we need to obey?” His response was something I had never heard.

“You only have seven laws,” he said, “but we Jews have six hundred and thirteen.”  I had heard of the Ten Commandments, but I had never heard of seven laws before. So, when I got home and saw my local rabbi, I asked him.

“Hey, Joel, how many laws are there?”

“That’s easy,” he said. “We have six hundred and thirteen, but you’ve only got seven.” 

This led me on a voyage of discovery into the sacred documents of Rabbinic Judaism—the Mishnah, the Tosefta, and the two Talmuds.  Through them, I learned that, at the time of the separation of Judaism and Christianity, the Jewish authorities had a sound understanding of what it meant to be righteous before God, even if one was not a Jew.

This exploration, of course, led to many more questions. Was Paul aware of the difference between the requirements for righteousness among Jews and among Gentiles? Was the law for the children of Noah—as the law for non-Jews was called—part of the thinking in the apostolic council described in Acts 15? How do we decide what provisions are included in moral law? This work represents the results of a period of struggling with these and many other related questions.

What Is Good Behavior?

Do you think of yourself as a good person? Do you think of yourself as a pretty good person? Do you hope, over time, to grow into a better person? How is that working out for you? After all, many folks out there want to tell you what to do. The self-help shelves at the bookstore have dozens of books to choose from, and each one has a different action plan. How do we pick the best source of advice from many, knowing that this year’s bestseller will be next year’s old news?

We face hundreds of choices every day. The person we are, the person we are becoming, is the result of the choices we make. How do we know which choices will help us grow better? What criteria can we trust in our choosing? Finding guidance we can depend on is unexpectedly difficult in our chaotic, postmodern world.

To begin with, it is hard to find a source of advice that we can trust. Much advice is self-interested, from authors who want to sell books or leaders who want to add to their bands of followers. Businesses make fortunes appealing to our senses, creating desires that become needs, and telling us that we “deserve” to be enjoying the best of everything. Even friends invite us to enjoy their own favorite activities, such as alcohol, drugs, or sex, to convince themselves that “everybody” thinks those activities are okay. 

We are bombarded by commercial messages selling all kinds of activities and products. Our culture encourages us to try everything, to dive into whatever feels good. As a result, we are led by our senses, lapping up experiences that feel good and devoting our efforts to obtaining more good feelings. The more we reach for good feelings, the more we are tossed around by one stimulating possibility after another. Jane Eyre, the prototypical heroine of the Victorian gothic novel, described her own situation:

Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation; they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigor; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth—so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane: with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs. Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by; there I plant my foot.  

Today’s romance novel heroine does not struggle this way, and she would probably wonder why on earth Jane did not just give in and enjoy. This heroine leaps from relationship to relationship, with little ground, other than the moment’s feelings, for deciding when to indulge and when to decline.

Each of us wants to be a good person, to grow into and to become a good person. We all face two choices at each decision point: do what we feel like at the moment, or do what we believe to be right. Sometimes these lead to the same action, but often they are in opposition. If we can find an action that will satisfy both needs, then we feel good about doing the right thing. However, if we choose with feelings alone, either going against what we know to be right or avoiding thinking about what we know to be right, our choices become as changeable as our feelings. When I shop, sometimes I remember the bills at home, and sometimes I buy new clothes anyway. I spend money when I am tired that would stay in my pocket if I were better rested. Choices based on feelings are unpredictable, and they lead to second-guessing and late-night backtracking into regrets. 

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the number of choices you need to make? Have you ever been lost in a maze of turbulent feelings, trying to decide what to do next? Do you long to know that the choices you make will match your hopes and ideals and not change with each new stimulation? The good news is that basing our choices on the direction in the Bible puts us on solid ground. The Bible’s commands—God’s plan for growing into goodness—do not change. We can look for dependable guidance where God has put it whenever we need help.

How Did We Lose Our Biblical Guidance?

The best source of direction for Christians is, of course, the Bible. The Bible is God’s own story, recorded by real people who have their own perspectives and their own human limitations. It is easy to accuse the Bible of being inaccurate, inconsistent, irrelevant, or just plain out of date, because you can always find problematic passages. The Bible contains both good examples for us to emulate and bad examples for us to avoid. Some biblical figures, such as King David, provide both. Our challenge is to discover and understand those parts of the Bible that contain God’s guidance for our own lives, and then to follow it.