The Sin Problem

Many people have a problem with the do's and dont's of the Old Testament, particularly in the books from Exodus to Deuteronomy. There are in effect 2 main problems.
The first is the wide scope of the rules. They ban things which we no longer see as bad. Some of the things are plain irrelevent, having to do with Jewish Temple worship and life rituals, and some are  seen as no longer having a claim on our behaviour, like Sabbath day observance. Indeed in the New Testament we can see both in the teaching of Jesus and of the Apostle Paul, a setting aside of some of the Old Testament regulations.
The second problem lies in the area of punishments. Some of the punishments seem vastly disproportionate to the behaviour to which they are allocated. Stoning for adultery springs to mind, but there are plenty others.
So how do we approach this in a way which allows us to disregard some of the rules but not throw the baby out with the bathwater?

Once again we need to start with our theology of God as revealed in the New Testament, and particularly in the teaching and actions of Jesus. From this vantage point we get a picture of a loving, forgiving God, who hates it when we abuse systems to our own advantage over the poor and vulnerable, who hates it when we hurt one another, who hates it when we renege on our responsibilities as human beings and as stewards of this good and beautiful world. It is this then that should guide us in our understanding of the rules and regulations of the Old Testament. This vast body of law comes from a time when the Jewish theology of God was not yet fully developed, and when social and cultural needs dictated a legal and judical framework that worked for those times. The sieve through which we need to shake these laws is the sieve of our New Testament understanding of God and of Sin. Sin is the stuff we do that hurts. God hates it when we hurt one another. So, we need to shake the law through that understanding. We need to ask of the behaviour in question, "Does this hurt someone, myself included?" And of the punishment, if the answer is yes, "Is this proportionate?" This way of looking at the laws will also apply to some of the New Testament teaching we find, particularly in Paul's letters, where he roundly condemns all sorts of behaviours.

If we use this method, hopefully we will get some consistency and common sense in our approach. It grates when I hear people defend laws and codes and judgement of certain behaviours simply "because the Bible says so.". You'll find that the Bible says a lot of things which even these people disregard, which kind of makes them hypocrites. So, please, keep in mind that the Old Testament is a hugely valuable source of understanding about God and Jesus, (it was his Bible after all) and get to know it.

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