Bible Interpretation

The 10 Commandments includes “thou shalt not kill”. The most extreme interpretation of this is the belief that is includes everything including trees and plants. This is consistent with the Garden of Eden story, but it doesn’t square with later events including the Jewish practice of animal sacrifice, Joshua’s wars of conquest and the concept of the “just war”.

 

Bible interpretation like beauty depends on the “eye of the beholder”. Despite the wide variance of behavior within the Bible, there is also a wide variance of Bible interpreters. We have innate instincts for survival and free will and cannot deny that these continue to affect our behavior.

 

Jesus of Nazareth summarized the 10 Commandments into “love God and love your neighbor”. His teachings addressed how we should live with each other, temper our instincts and be continually mindful of God the Father. That gave us the key that we need to have a personal relationship with God. We need the personal freedom to exercise our free will to make this choice and not become too distracted with our short life here on earth.

 

If we were created to do God’s Will, we need a feedback loop to gage how well we are doing.  We are unique and should have a unique role in God’s Plan. We are blessed with unique abilities and we should be free to pursue these abilities to serve ourselves and others.

 

Those who pose a threat to others have been banished. The Cain and Able and other stories attest to that. We need food and shelter and tend to gather as families into communities and have defended these communities from unwanted intruders for thousands of years.

 

We all have to support ourselves and tend to our needs and the needs of our families. We are blessed to live in this modern age with the comforts we have created with our own inventions. To prosper, we need to use our talents and abilities.  If we can find our “sweet spot” we should then experience peace and joy. I don’t think we can do much better than that.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader