The Dangerous Bible

The Bible is a dangerous thing, isn’t it? The other day my beautiful (and very feminine) wife was having lunch at Long John Silver’s (her first mistake) when an older woman donning a 1950’s style colonial dress approached her and our four kids and offered them each a salvation tract. After my wife kindly informed this woman that she was too a follower of Christ and had, in fact, just come from a Bible study, the woman went on to say that if my wife really knew Jesus then she would never dress in men’s clothes like she had on (i.e. jeans), especially in the Lord’s house.

“You think I look like a man?’ my wife asked her. To which the woman emphatically replied, “Yes. You look just like a man. And if you knew anything about God then you would realize what he wants you to wear.”

What in the world was this woman talking about? She was referring to a verse in Deuteronomy (22:5) which says, “A woman must not wear men’s clothing… for the Lord detests anyone who does this.” But does this have anything to do with a 21st century woman wearing jeans?

The answer is, of course, no. Without waxing too hermeneutical and getting into the different types of OT legal material, let me just say that responsible biblical interpretation demands a great deal of wisdom and hard word. Consider this: in back-to-back verses in Proverbs 26 we’re given two diametrically opposite exhortations. One verse tells us to “answer a fool” lest we make him think he’s wise, while the previous verse tells us, “Don’t answer a fool or we’ll become like him ourselves.” Well, which one is it? Should we answer a fool or not?

The point of the Proverb is that it takes wisdom to know when to respond to foolishness. Just like it takes wisdom to know how to rightly interpret the Bible.

Well, may we take seriously the Apostle Paul’s command to “take great pains to show ourselves approved unto God” and may we have the kindness to respond to any lunch-ruining tract-peddlers with the same gracious incredulity of our Lord Jesus.