ken_sylvania wrote: ↑Wed Sep 06, 2023 10:42 pm
Ernie wrote: ↑Wed Sep 06, 2023 9:07 pm
ken_sylvania wrote: ↑Wed Sep 06, 2023 8:37 am
I believe the text says we should do that "when" we fast, not "before". Considering that washing the face and anointing the head was a part of daily hygiene, the command seems to be to continue normal hygiene without interruption so that most people would have no idea that you are fasting.
I guess a lot of people use hair gel of some sort to anoint their heads rather than olive oil. Washing the face seems fairly self explanatory.
But I do see this as prescriptive.
barnhart wrote: ↑Wed Sep 06, 2023 10:11 am
I agree with Ken. I see it as a teaching on avoiding the trap of serving God for the approval of men, in direct reference to the Pharisees.
So... I agree with both Barnhart and ken-sylvania. I use the same model for the prescription about shaking the dust off one's feet when people reject the Gospel. With these two, I follow the principle.
But I hear many people using the same interpretation model (looking at the principle of the thing) for practices like footwashing, headcovering, hospitality, and the holy kiss. For these prescriptions I believe there is a principle but more than a principle.
I haven't been able to make a good argument for why I only follow the principle for the first two, and follow more than the principle for the last four.
If any of you have a good argument for this, I'm open to hearing it.
To paraphrase Steve from another thread - if the practice seems illogical to me, then the focus is on the principle of the thing. If the practice seems logical to me, then anybody who focuses on only the principle is a backsliding liberal!
I wonder how people in this thread would apply 1 Corinthians 15:54:
"Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?"
I haven't found categorization helpful. I think it's more useful to try to understand a text in its original context, then ask how to apply it today. Ofte it's straightforward. Don't commit adultery. Sometimes it's hard to even be sure what it meant to them, as the above verse, and it's therefore hard to know how to obey today. I'm not sure that I would encourage people to baptize for the dead today.
Sometimes the most literal possible application may actually violate the spirit of the original command. Consider the following:
2 Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? 8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9 "A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough." 10 I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. 11 Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been abolished. 12 As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!
Would you teach modern Americans who are circumcised that Christ is of no value to them? I do not think that circumcision has the same meaning in the modern American context that it did to Paul in Galatians.
So I think this thread asks an important question. I don't think the answer is simple. I think it usually requires groups of believers, intent on obedience, reading carefully, seeking God's guidance together.
Is it biblical? Is it Christlike? Is it loving? Is it true? How can I find out?