A believer who is a social media influencer wore a debatable appearance recently. He went on to justify it, saying he has scriptural backing for most of the things he does. That throws up some problems. When Satan tempted Jesus, he also had Scripture for it. He asked Jesus to do a stunt from the pinnacle of the temple because it is written, ‘He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you.” The question is, was that truly written? Of course, yes. However, it was not in the context that Satan used it. The fact is, there is hardly any position we take that there won’t be a Scripture or two to justify it. It does not matter how bizarre it seems, you can do a Scriptural summersault and arrive at any position.

“The ground rule for our action should be what it does to our faith and witness for Christ.”

We need to understand that many of the things we have in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament, are descriptive and not  prescriptive. In other words, they are documentation of what happened and not recommendations to be replicated. For example, David’s liaison with Bathsheba is in the Bible. Can that be used to justify taking advantage of another man’s wife? Or, consider Solomon with his harem of women – 700 wives and 300 concubines. Can a man use that as a ground to marry all the ladies in sight? That would be bizarre. The ground rule for our action should be what it does to our faith and witness for Christ. Whatever will stand in the way of our effective witness should be avoided, even if you have ten Scriptures to support it.