We who follow Christ do not always have the luxury of a black and white world, though some would surely like us to believe that.
In some situations, we are more than happy to not discuss any rational thought and just stick to our beliefs about what the Bible teaches… no argument to the contrary will penetrate our hardened beliefs.
But then there are issues where we clearly rationalize away from what the book of our faith clearly teaches. Take forgiveness, for example.
Too many times, forgiveness is seen as merely the words, “I forgive you” with some sort of public acknowledgment that everything is now okay between the offender and offended. But the rationale is, “If I don’t make them pay for what they did, even a little, they will be prone to do it again.” So holding back some of our emotions and keeping on to a bit of our pain becomes justified because it supposedly helps the offender.
When it comes to issues like sex before marriage, divorce, profanity, etc., the tendency is to have rigid views which are “biblical.” When it comes to the sticky application of forgiveness, an honest look into how a New Testament reader should feel about war, or whether or not you should help that homeless guy (“who’s probably a drug addict and is probably responsible for his condition…”), we are very content to let our rational minds guide us through what is right and what is wrong.
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