In the recent edition of Table Talk, Scott Sauls wrote an article on the seventh commandment that contained many true and valuable observations, and which at the same time revealed the profound faint-heartness of contemporary Reformed evangelicalism.

Here’s a sample.

“As once taboo expressions of sexuality become mainstream, and as colleagues, friends, and even family members share news of a pending “no-fault” divorce or same-sex or cohabiting heterosexual relationship, more and more Christians -– especially when friendships and family ties hang in the balance -– feel an urgency to sympathize instead of condemn, to support instead of separate, to affirm instead of deny. And yet, we are still left to wrestle with the biblical text.”

The entire problem is one of orientation. This being the kind of situation it is, let us call it our textual orientation.

In the world of the New Testament, wrestling does go on, but it is not with the text, not like this. We wrestle, for example, with principalities and powers (Eph. 6:12). If we continue to follow the example of the apostle Paul, we buffet our bodies (1 Cor. 9:27, NASB).

“I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” (1 Cor. 9:26–27).

The Christian life is in fact strenuous and challenging. “An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules” (2 Tim. 2:5, ESV).

We wrestle against the world, the flesh, and the devil. These are the adversary. We do so in accordance with the rules. We do not whine about the selection of the judges, and we do not wrestle with the rules. We do not go and lie down in front of the judges’ table in order to writhe on the ground.

In short, the text is not the problem. We are the problem. When we first see that the ways of the world are radically inconsistent with the ways of God — and what a shock that was, let me tell you — we tend to look for ways to adjust the Word to the world, instead of the other way around. We want workarounds in the text. We want to wrestle with the text. It is time for an original Greek word study!

This is because we are all tyros, novices and pikers. We have not yet resisted to the shedding of blood (Heb. 12:4). When we have resisted to the shedding of blood, we will then be in a position to imitate the Lord Jesus when He wrestled with the text. Jesus wrestled with the Scriptures (that cannot be broken), because those Scriptures foretold His agonizing death on the cross. Scripture could not be broken, but Christ’s body could be.

When we have skin in the game, then we may wrestle with the text. But it is not safe to even think about trying it before then.