QaA_V

...We Answer

Not every answer might comply with everybody's way of seeing things. Then I kindly ask you to hold it with Paul, who said in 1 Corinthians 13 that we now see in part. All of us answering here, stick to the basic faith statements as defined in the Apostle's Creed, yet further to that we know that there are also Biblical topics not related to salvation itself, that different people understand and see differently. So please keep this in mind in case you "stumble" over a certain answer - we would like you to be blessed by the challenge of different aspects!

Answer Set 5

Question: Hi there! I was just wondering if you could help me with something I have been wondering for a while now. In the Old Testament, there are a lot of people mentioned, such as Abraham that were called, 'God's men', or people that had found favour in Gods eyes. What I dont understand is, how come these men had more than one wife, concubines and were allowed to sleep with maid servants. We all know what God thinks about that and we know that it wasn't Gods intention for them to live that way. So how come they were allowed to do that? How come they did that and were still acceptable in Gods sight? Please if you could help me with these questions I would be really greatful.

Answer from Birgit: Hi Asha, I understand your doubt perfectly well. See, the thing is that back in those times, God allowed it to pass, although it was not His intention for mankind, there you are right. If you take Abraham, for example, first thing you see is that he did NOT have more than one wife, he only had Sarah. He didn't have concubines either. And he did not sleep with Hagar because of his own desire or pleasure, but it was his own wife who wanted him to sleep with HER servant - it wasn't even HIS servant, so it was not an act of unfaithfulness toward her. As to Genesis 16:2, it was the sole purpose for Sarah to have her own child, as it was promised by God. She simply could not understand the miraculous conceivement God wanted to give her later on and, of course, she did not know about it either. This episode shows that God, although He did not intend such a 'family planning' for them, He still keeps to His covenant and writes evenly on crooked lines (as we say here in German).

A similar thing happened to Jacob with Rachel and Leah. He actually never planned to have 2 wives. This only happened because he was tricked into this by his own father-in-law who wanted to have his first daughter Leah get married first. How he did that, please read the full story in Genesis 29 yourself. Then years later, it happened the same way with Rachel's first child as it did with former Sarah. Jacob did NOT have an affair with her servant, it was, as to the costumes of those times, that Rachel made Jacob sleep with HER servant so that she (Rachel) might call this child her own.

So as you see, this all was mere chaos, of which I am certain just like you, that God was not pleased with. Yet again, being a loving God, He took this chaos and prepared the way for the forthcoming 12 tribes of Israel.

Judge Gideon started out a man of God. But in later years, he tempted his own people into idolatry (Judges 8:27-31). In the same context it is mentioned that he had a lot of women, which to my opinion did not contribute to his 'good times'.

David did really commit adultery and even killed because of it. But he repented from his heart, yet still had to take the consequences anyway and had to live by them throughout all his upcoming life. Here, I am certain that God accepted his repenting heart. This adultery stands in total difference to his having several wives. Prophet Nathan never critized THIS. But you cannot say that God was happy about it, either. My guess here is that human things had a role in this, because his first, rightful wife Micah (Saul's daughter) had been stolen of which neither he nor she did recover from during the rest of their lives. So his future wives were probably a psychological reaction to this psychosomatic problem. Now look at David's life further on... pure tragedy....

And with Solomon it was very obvious that his many wifes and concubines made him stumble, he even got psychologically ill because of it and never recovered. Here, we know that God did not accept this life style at all.

Yet the big bottom line in this is that God is good all the time and all the time, God is good!

Answer from Sharon: Having more than one wife was part of their Old Testament culture. That does not mean God was pleased with what they did. The Old Testament saints were looking forward to the coming Savior and hence were also righteous in God's sight on the basis of their trust in the blood of the Lamb, Jesus, and NOT on the basis of their works. We too as His children are righteous on the basis of what Jesus did for us on the cross and NOT our own works. There is much in our life that falls short of the glory of God also. There is much in our life that is also influenced by OUR ungodly culture today. God accepts us anyway as we are. He does want us to strive to become more and more like Jesus, however. The Lord sends things in our lives to help us grow in grace.

Question: Is a white lie a sin? Like "dinner was great" while in fact it was bad, or something like that. Are we lying? Or is it second nature of trying not to hurt someone's feelings?

Answer from Polly: A rose by any other name is still a rose. A lie, whether white or black, is still a lie. The human sin all started with Satan's 'little white lie' when he told Eve that she would not surely die (Genesis 3:4). There are so many little lies in the Bible that I cannot list them but when reading carefully they always caused trouble, not accomplishing anything good. Matthew 5:37 says to let your yes be yes and your no be no (no little white lies in between). Exodus 20:16 does not make a distinction between a lie and a white lie. Put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor (Ephesians 4:25); whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much (Luke 16:10). In other words, it is so very easy to go from a little white lie to a big black lie and the Scripture sees no difference in the two. If you cannot say anything good without lying, say nothing! Using your own example: "Thanks for the dinner invitation", would keep you polite and honest. White lies usually come when we are caught off guard or when point blank asked a question. Pray that you have the wisdom to stop and think before an answer comes from your mouth.

Question: Can you please explain the passage found in 1 John 4:18. How can I defeat fear through love? Thank you.

¹⁸ There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

Answer from Polly: This fear is the fear of judgment and the love is the love of God passed onto a Christian. We have come to believe and rely on the love God has for us (verse 16). Living in the atmosphere of mutual Christian love produces a personal knowledge of God's love and a fresh experience of faith in that love. Now we can have boldness at the judgment seat of Christ when He returns. The writer is not referring to a final judgment in which the eternal destiny hangs in the balance (Revelation 20:14-15).

There is no such judgement for a believer (Revelation 20:6). A believer's life will be assessed at the judgement and God will approve the quality of his life if, through love, that believer becomes like Christ while in this world (2 Corinthians 5:10). In this way he achieves the goal of confidence and no shame before God (1 John 2:28). The matured experience of God's love (reached by loving one another) expels fear from the heart. Fear carries its own punishment because we feel guilty and are afraid to meet the Judge. Such fear prevents complete perfect love (1 John 4:18).

A Christian who loves others because God first loved them is simply facing the ONE whom he loves and who loved him. There is no fear in such a meeting.