Matt was speaking yesterday. I was a little bored, so I was just reading random bits of the Bible near to the passage he was referring to. While doing so, I came across this interesting bit of Scripture...
"Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering." 1 Cor 11:14-15
haha. most of my friends have been telling me to cut my hair, but i far prefer this shaggy mop to the secondary-school-standard-style i had been sporting before. truth is, i have no idea what to do with my hair. i want it longish to hide the fact that my chin is more pointy than the Eiffel tower, but i don't know how to pull it off in a way that doesn't look girly. having no muscles doesn't help me here. people tell me i look like a girl, but i just laugh it off. :)
Jill asked me if God was saying something to me through that particular scripture. I don't really think so, but i'm usually quite blur in these matters, so i will wait for further corroboration. :) but it kinda relates to something i've been thinking hard about these past few weeks about the interpretation of scripture...
abit too lazy to go into details now, but what i've been telling people is this: The Bible is not a book of rules. It's a bunch of stories about people who were all trying their darnedest to follow God. So even when there are rules written in there, it doesn't necessarily apply today. But do look at why those rules were written in the first place. This is the logos word of God.
Occasionally, individual bits of Scripture may jump out at you, and may need to be taken literally. This is the rhema word of God, as described in Hebrews 4, where it says that the word of God is living and active. That's what Jill was referring to when she asked me about the hair...
One thing which helped me understand Scripture interpretation was the realisation that Jesus himself often contradicted OT scriptures. I think it's most apparent in Matthew 5, where Jesus repeatedly quotes OT scripture ("You have heard it has been said..."), and then makes his own statement about the topic ("But I tell you the truth..."). I wonder if I might have realised this earlier if I knew how to read Greek...
