Working with certain assumptions, it is relatively easy to make claims about the "biblical principles" one should uphold when making everyday choices. The authors of the lessons for this quarter make frequent reference to them, but fail to enunciate a single one.

As generally understood, principles are supposed to be broad, eternal directives that must be followed at all times without failing. These principles, then, inform the rules that are dictated in a particular place, at a particular time, under particular circumstances. Rules, we are told, may be changed. Principles are forever steadfast in their validity. Of course, the Bible only offers laws and proverbial advice. We decide which laws may be changed and which are unchangeable. We decide which principle informs a particular changeable law or piece of advice. Then we decide how to reapply in a contemporary concrete case the principle involved.

It seems more than just a bit specious to claim that the rule we propose as the correct expression of a principle we have identified in the abstract is "biblical." The only merit in these exercises is satisfaction of a need to tell ourselves that we are "biblically based." This need, however, is many times misconceived or misapplied. The history of Christianity does not lack examples of innumerable criminal acts committed by someone who followed a "biblical" principle, or acted under a biblical command.

The biblical material most concerned with advice for daily living is known as the Wisdom Literature. Its roots go back centuries to Egyptian wisdom and its influence is present in most of the books of the New Testament. For the most part, it reflects a rather conservative cast of mind concerned with keeping society stable on a hierarchical structure. Those above must be honored. Everyone must know their place and be contented with their lot. Peace and happiness is the result of retributive justice.

Characteristic of the Wisdom Literature is its universalism, its finding its footing in Creation, its optimism about human nature, and its critical stance toward those who look to history—both personal and national—in order to determine the will of God. The notion of a divine covenant with a chosen people is hardly found in it. God has become transcendent, and God’s ways are no longer easy to identify among the many things that take place on earth. We read in Ecclesiastes, which we studied last quarter, "God is in heaven and you upon earth; therefore, let your words be few."

Of course, the rise of critical reasoning among the Greeks also influenced the rise of the Wisdom Literature. Greek philosophy, love of wisdom, was essentially concerned with the issues of what may be considered the best possible life, and how one lives such a life. To deal with such issues, the Greeks did a study of human behaviors and identified a number of vices and virtues. They then argued for the development of character by the conscious elimination of vices and the cultivation of virtues. Only in this way could one possibly hope to live the good life.

Of course, in order to live this way the most important thing is to develop a mind capable of discerning how particular actions contributed to the elimination of vices and the cultivation of virtues. Living uncritically allows the passions and the pressures of circumstances to rule one’s life and makes the good life impossible. Only an enlightened mind, capable of reasoning its way out of the obfuscations brought about by the passions, is capable of making the right choices that foster the living of a good life.

I would like to suggest that the Wisdom Literature argues that use of the critical faculties of the mind in the determination of the right choices for our lives conforms with God’s will. The apostle Paul was undoubtedly taking into account the Wisdom tradition when he wrote: "Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Rom. 12:2).

According to these words, the will of God is not readily available in a set of rules, or in a set of revealed principles. Rather, the apostle tells us that our minds must be worked on, he says "renewed," to make them fit to discern the will of God, which, it would seem, is not within easy reach. The Greek word anakainoósei may also be translated "made new from above."1 In this way, Paul says that the training of a mind that is able to discern the good, the acceptable, the perfect (all three words only restate the same thing: the good life God wishes us to live) is the work of the Spirit from above.

The Scriptures by themselves may be used and abused. It takes the work of the Spirit in and through the human mind for the Bible to be the source of wisdom for daily living. We may adopt or reject the Greek lists of vices and virtues determined after careful reasoning using all the tools of syllogistic analysis. Some may think that our concern should be the avoidance of sins, as these are identified by divine revelation rather than human logic.

The Wisdom tradition within Scripture, which Paul certainly knew and took seriously, tells us that it is folly to think that we can avoid the use of our minds in order to "discern," "prove," "determine," "assess," "judge," and "evaluate," among alternatives in order to "establish" whatever is good. As the apostle Paul also says, "Sin is what is done unfaithfully. Happy are those who do not bring condemnation on themselves by what they, as persons of faith before God, have determined to be good" (my paraphrase of Rom. 14:21–22).

Here we do not find a simplistic recourse to a list of principles, or sins, enumerated in the Bible. Rather, we find complete trust in the capacity of believers to be independent discerners of the will of God, fully aware that their capacity to use a mind made anew from above imposes on them great responsibility. We do a disservice to the Bible if we overlook the significance of the discerning human mind for living in accordance with God’s will.

Notes and References

1. The preposition attached to the word is the short form of the word that makes for the pun with "again" and "from above" in the conversation of Jesus with Nicodemus (John 3:3).

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