The tension: The Decalogue and its echoes across the Torah, Gospels, and Epistles absolutize the prohibition on stealing, yet Genesis 31:19 reports without condemnation tha…
The tension: The Decalogue and a long chorus of prophetic, wisdom, and epistolary texts prohibit lying absolutely — false witness, false reports, deception are abominations.
The tension: The Torah (Exod 20:14, Deut 5:18) and the New Testament (Acts 15:20, 1 Cor 5:1, 6:13, 6:18, 10:8, 2 Cor 12:21, Gal 5:19-21, Eph 5:3, Col 3:5-6, 1 Thess 4:3, He…
The tension: The Tenth Commandment as quoted by Paul in Romans 7:7 and 13:9 prohibits coveting, and Ephesians 5:3 and Colossians 3:5 reinforce that covetousness is idolatry…
The tension: The Torah, prophets, and Wisdom literature relentlessly command fear of YHWH — Deuteronomy 6:13, Ecclesiastes 12:13, Proverbs 9:10, Matthew 10:28, and Hebrews…
The tension: The Bible holds together two streams: Deuteronomy 30:19 and Joshua 24:15 frame human destiny as a real moral choice ("choose life," "choose you this day"), whi…
The tension: Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:21, 3:18, and 4:10 actively recommends becoming a fool — God saves through the foolishness of preaching, and Paul calls himself and his…
The tension: Paul stacks Romans 3:28, Romans 4:13, Galatians 2:16, Galatians 3:11-12, and Ephesians 2:8-9 to insist humans are justified by faith apart from works of the la…
The tension: Matthew 4:10 quotes Deuteronomy 6:13 and tells Satan that one should worship and serve God *only* — and Matthew 23:10 says no one but Christ should be called *…
The tension: The Synoptic Jesus tells his followers they must become like little children to enter the kingdom — receive it, in fact, *as* a little child or stay locked out.
The tension: Ephesians 4:26 says "Be ye angry, and sin not" — anger is permitted, even commanded, as long as it doesn't lead to sin and isn't carried into the next day.
The tension: Luke 14:26 has Jesus state baldly that no one can be his disciple without hating father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and his own life.
