Lesson 26: Case Study IV: Moral Issues

Case Study: Moral Issues

Jack is an occasional smoker and has been for years. His Bible class teacher said that he should not smoke because the body is the temple of the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Romans 12:1). However, Jack knows that his teacher eats a lot of food that is bad for him, does not exercise, and drinks lots of caffeine.

Questions for Discussion & Study

1. Is Jack’s Bible class teacher using the above scriptures correctly? Explain your answer.

2. Is it wrong for Jack to smoke? Why or why not (give scriptures)? Sandy does not think it is right to go to the casinos and waste a lot of money at the slot machines or card tables. However, she thinks that a little gambling is fine. Occasionally, she will buy a lottery ticket or make small bets on sports. Her friend, who is also a Christian, told her that gambling is wrong because it is not the proper way to earn money according to the scripture.

   • 1. Do you think Sandy’s friend has a valid Biblical argument? Explain.
   • 2. What Biblical arguments would you use for or against gambling?

3. Isn’t the stock market a gamble? Addendum Problems with Greek Word Studies A problem that contributes to our misunderstanding of the Bible and disagreements with one another is misuse of the ancient languages in which the Bible was written: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Usually, Greek is the most misused since most students can grasp basic Greek much easier than Hebrew or Aramaic. Additionally, there are many Greek lan gu age re s o urce s —le xi c ons , dictionaries, and word studies— available to the average student. However, the availability of Greek resources may be the source of the problem. Those who know little Greek may often boast that they can still do a word study. As Phil Roberts said in a lecture at Florida College, linguists would argue that only someone with intimate knowledge of the Greek should do a word study. A true word study considers the use of the word in both the Bible and extra-biblical literature as well as its varied uses. Yet the origin of the word is of little use in determining what a word means in a specific context. Words have meaning. However, Bible students are often accustomed to thinking that Bible words have a real or true meaning that is somehow missing in the English text. Often a study of a Bible passage involves much time looking for the true meaning of the words in the text. This approach fails to recognize that words only have meaning within the larger structure of the sentence, paragraph, or entire text. Consider the word . What does it mean? Many probably thought of a temperature but others may have considered other meanings. What does the phrase may have an idea that comes to mind but consider these sentences: Do not touch that pot, . I love that new song; . I do not like that Mexican spice; hot . Do not buy the television from that burglar; . We do not know what means without a broader context. This should emphasize the folly of studying words in isolation. Words do not have meaning without context. Etymology Etymology, the study of word history, became popular in the late 1800’s and in recent years, the focus of the real meaning of words is very popular. A far back as the Greeks, Stoic philosophers believed that if they went back in time far enough, the real meaning of a word would become evident. As J.P. Louw says, “If this method were correct, then everyone would need to know Greek in order to understand the true meaning of words.” I’ll go further and say that it means that we must know Greek in order to know what the Bible really