A Brief Insight on How People Justify Sin with the Bible
In a conversation with a new reader, I shared part of my journey in writing this Exodus 21 book, highlighting how the Bible abolishes slavery.
I expressed my desire behind the book like this:
I kept noticing that slavery could only be supported by proof-texting, by ignoring the context of each verse. Take Exodus 21:2, erroneously translated "when you buy a slave." In the slave-owning American south, I'm sure many Christians used this verse to justify buying slaves.
But they all ignored the second half of the same verse: to let them go free after six years as full citizens, and to load them down with wealth so they can start their own lives. No one in the American south was obeying that part of these verses.
When you listen to everything the Law lays out, slavery is impossible.
That's what I want people to see.
It highlights the dark tendencies in the human soul, the desire to see the justification for actions we want to take, and ignore the rebuke that would stop that action.
If Christians who practiced slavery had read the entire Bible — and let every verse speak fully to them — they would become abolitionists. They would repent of their sin and let the Scriptures reshape their lives.
This is an easy catch for us, today. The culture we live in has been so thoroughly shaped by Christian abolitionists that slavery stands out starkly as sin.
But how many sins do we justify in this same way?
How many times to we focus on the passages that seem to support our favorite sin, and ignore the passages that rebuke them?
Let me ask this more personally:
When was the last time Scripture convicted you?
When was the last time you let the Scriptures rebuke you — changing your actions, changing what you do, changing what you wanted to do?
When was the last time the Scriptures led you to repentance?
Some of you know right away. For some of you it was this morning.
For others, it’s hard to remember the last time.
If this is you, let me encourage you to pray as David prayed:
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my concerns.
See if there is any offensive way in me;
lead me in the way everlasting (Psalm 139:23-24)
Pray this.
Let God answer.
Then take the action His Word directs you to.
This is how we stop slavery—and every other kind of sin.