I seem to be coming across this idea,
this mindset, and it has been causing me to think and ponder. It is
this thought that there is some sort of utopian circumstance, in
which you live exactly as God intended and spelled out in the Bible, but that there are exceptions made to certain commands if one does
not live within that utopian circumstance.
For example, all women should be stay
at home mothers/homemaker – unless their life circumstance requires
them to work outside the home, such as in the case of their husband
leaving them, or dying, or being physically unable to work at all.
Or that a woman can NEVER teach a
man... unless there are no men willing/worthy to do the teaching,
THEN a woman can take up the duty. (The reason for this is cited as
the story of the Israelite Judge, Deborah (Judges 4-5), though upon
reading the passage, there is not even a hint of such an idea. I'd
think it would be important enough to mention “there were no worthy
men, so a woman was made judge.”) Much as we may want to, we can
make no such inference into the text, the idea is simply not there.
The truth is... There is no 'utopia
principle' of Christian life. The Bible never hints, much less
states, that Christians should act one way in a certain situation,
and a completely different way in a different situation. Where does
it say a wife is to submit “except in sin”? And if the submission
teaching is quite solid, and implies a wife ought to sin on behalf of
her husband, then perhaps we ought to reexamine our interpretation of
those verses.
The idea that Christians should act one
way in a utopian situation and a different way in a third
world/persecution situation or a “less than desirable” situation
is completely false. Are we to be peaceful only when our “utopian”
situation allows for it? Are women only allowed to lead men if they
are within a less-than desirable situation? And if it is permissible
for Deborah, why is it not permissible for me?
If our dogmatic ideas about a select
few verses does not hold up against the rest of the Bible, or if
there are certain “exceptions” made to them in the Bible, should
we not examine those verses to make sure we are understanding them
correctly?
“Thou shalt follow all of these
rules... when in a utopian ideal situation, otherwise you'll have to
ad lib.”
If it doesn't make sense for the
commands to pray, love, witness, be truthful, faithfulness, and the
myriad of other Biblical commands to be on a “utopia principle”
basis, how can it make sense in the case of women teaching, working
outside the home, never cutting their hair, men never growing their
hair long, the man always being the breadwinner, etc?
