It should be obvious to any Bible reader that some commands we take at face value and some we appear to ignore (or dismiss as no longer relevant or applicable).

1. For example, the Bible tells us to greet each other with a holy kiss on no fewer than five occasions (Romans 16:16; 1 Corinthians 16:20, 2 Corinthians 13:12; 1 Thess. 5:26; 1 Peter 5:24).  Almost nobody in Australia obeys these commands. (Remember, this is speaking of men kissing men, not men kissing women.)
2. We are told to relieve the suffering of the poor by feeding them beer so they can forget their misery (Proverbs 31:6-7). I am yet to hear of a beer ministry for the poor.
3. Women are told not to wear braided hair, gold jewellery, pearls or expensive clothing (1 Timothy 2:9), yet I see women in church every week disobeying this command. Three verses later, women are told to not to “teach or exercise authority”. On what grounds do we take these commands on teaching and authority to be binding today, but not the commands on braided hair and gold jewellery?
4. Some people will cite Leviticus 19:28 as an injunction against tattoos, ignoring the previous verse which says “Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.” (Lev 19:27).

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Genesis 3 begins with a remarkable conversation between Eve (“the woman”) and a snake (“the serpent”):

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

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One of my favourite blogs is “Thought for the Week” by Kyle Tucker. He is currently writing an excellent series on reformation that I highly recommend. I wish everyone who reads this blog would read his latest piece before adding comments, writing emails or calling meetings.

Here are the first three articles in his series:

• Reformation 1
• Reformation 2
• Reformation 3

To quote from the last of these:

The next suggested reform for us is to learn to communicate effectively with one another and to learn to be able to disagree without being disagreeable….

Let’s put it this way, open, honest and intelligent dialogue is not going to be the end of the Truth as we know it while the opposite of it may be.