On Scripture And Personal Decisions

I'm sure you've seen it many times--people taking phrases from the Bible out of context.  Seems you could grab any idea and find justification for it in Scripture.  As long as you don't pay any attention to the context of the quote, anything goes.

The offshoot of it is that religion can be tailor made to fit your exact desires (whether those desires are good for you or not).  And the offshoot of THAT is one million different creeds, all claiming to hold true to the Bible.  

The problem is many of the passages in Scripture CAN be taken by themselves.  Could we argue with "He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword", even without knowing the story behind it?  Could we deny that "Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends", even without knowing Jesus was telling the Apostles to follow his own example?

With such nuggets of knowledge spread throughout the Bible, it's tempting to think all of Scripture is like that.  It's also tempting to produce a lot of platitudes to make ourselves feel or sound more profound.

If the phrase will work by itself without contradicting the message of the Gospel, then that's fine.  But if it doesn't quite jive with Catholic Teaching, and it contradicts what's in the rest of the Bible, then we have a problem, Houston.

Of course, the problem most Catholics face is not so much in figuring out what the original authors intended (we can always rely on the Church for this), but in trying find out how specific passages relate to our very lives and our relationship with God... which is really a different matter.  The rule of thumb is always the same here.  Scripture will not contradict the Church, and the Church will not contradict Scripture.  But in our own situations, we might often find interpretations that don't always apply to everyone.  

For example, we hear Jesus telling us not to store our riches in a barn.  Now the Church will tell us all about that passage and what Jesus was talking about.  But when we have $50 extra dollars, and we're trying to decide whether to put it in the bank, give it to a charity, or spend it on a new coffee maker (mine happens to go out a lot, so I'm often faced with this decision... well, not so much the EXTRA $50, but with whether or not to dip into my budget for a new coffee maker), the Church's teaching isn't really much use here.  Obviously, the Church isn't against us saving money.  And not EVERY penny we earn HAS to be donated to charity.  And we really do need a coffee maker.  So we might end up agonizing over this simple decision.  Do we look at Scripture to find out what to do?  Which passage applies?

Here is where the Holy Spirit comes into play, and while your decision should never contradict the context of the Bible, the Holy Spirit might just give you something a little extra... something that most people won't see in a passage.  It might not come from the Catechism or even something Church related.  It might be something someone says to you at work, or a set of events that move you to act in one way or another (someone who drinks coffee is going to visit next week, so the coffee maker would be more logical).  It could just be a gut feeling.

Scripture can help us make our decisions, but if we let small bits and pieces of it rule our lives, we end up missing the big picture.  And sometimes we shut out guidance from the Holy Spirit.  You won't always find your answers to personal questions by reading the Bible.  But if you allow God to move you, your answers will never contradict the Bible.

If you do happen to be struggling with a personal decision, I know of a great book that might help you:

http://thecatholicletter.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=83&Itemid=33