by Kent Leslie ✉️
All the Old Testament books which we call “poetry books”—Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon, or Canticles) are actually wisdom books. Because they’re meant to teach wisdom. Yes, even Psalms. Wanna know what God is like, and how he typically blesses his followers and deals with his rebels? The psalmists will tell you what they’ve seen God do; what they know him to be like.
Obviously Ecclesiastes is part of the bible’s wisdom genre, so I gotta talk a bit about what that genre consists of, because an awful lot of Christians misinterpret it. Myself included, for the longest time.
’Cause it sounds self-explanatory, doesn’t it? Wisdom literature should mean all this stuff is wise—the advice of the smartest people of the bible. And we oughta follow it, and do everything they recommend, almost as if they’re implied commands. When the bible advises, “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender,” [Pr 22.7
Here’s the problem with biblical principles: You do realize slavery is a biblical principle.
Seriously. There are proverbs about slaves. (The proverb I just quoted is one of them!) There are commands in the Law of Moses about how someone might become a slave, how slaveholders are to treat them and not mistreat them, how God wants the slaves freed every seventh year, and how someone might voluntarily become a slave for life. Paul wrote the letter to Philemon to a slaveholder, instructing him to remember his slave Onesimus was his brother Christian… yet not instructing Philemon to free him; just treat him right.
And for way, way too long in the United States, Christians used to justify slavery, and all the atrocious things they did to their slaves, by pointing out, “Slavery is a biblical principle you know.”
See, the problem is when Christians realize there’s an underlying principle in the scriptures… and never identify whether this principle is found in the bible because it’s a God-principle, or whether it’s part of the culture of the day—Sumerian, Egyptian, Canaanite, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, or Roman. (Or for that matter American. Plenty of preachers wrongly bend or stretch bible verses until they match their personal values. Just look at all the preachers who still denounce rock ’n roll.)
Slavery is a biblical principle because it’s an ancient cultural principle. Just like polygamy, patriarchy, absolute monarchy, levirate marriage, and other customs which we Christians are not bound to practice anymore. In fact in many cases God wants Christians to be rid of those customs. When Joel wrote, “Your sons and daughters will prophesy,” [Jl 3.28] and Paul wrote “There is no male nor female in Christ Jesus,” [Ga 3.28] and Jesus had no problem with Mary of Bethany learning at his feet, exactly the same as his male students, [Lk 10.38-42] these are some of the many indications God wants to do away with patriarchy and sexism, and for women to participate in the life of his church exactly the same as the men. Patriarchy may be a biblical principle, but it’s hardly a God-principle. But try telling that to sexists.
In any case the proverbs aren’t there to teach us biblical principles. They’re there to teach us wisdom. And here’s an example of how. See these verses?—
4 Do not answer fools according to their folly, lest you be a fool yourself. 5 Answer fools according to their folly, lest they be wise in their own eyes.
They’re right next to one another in Proverbs. On purpose. That’s not a mistake; that’s not a mistranslation. They contradict each other. Deliberately. You know how some Christians claim the bible never contradicts itself? Clearly those people need to actually read it.
When people try to explain the contradiction (or in a lot of cases, try to explain it away!) their answers are usually, “In this situation, you don’t answer fools; in this other situation, you do.” They pick and chose which verse to follow depending on the situation. And that’s exactly the right answer.
How do we know which situation we’re in, which necessitates following verse 4 or verse 5? Well we use our heads. We use wisdom. We need wisdom to practice wisdom! And yes, if we lack wisdom, do as James said; ask God for it. [Jm 1.5] He’ll make us wise enough to figure out, “Oh this is the kind of fool I’m dealing with”—whether it’s someone who can actually take correction, or someone where we’ll just be wasting time.
You see, the wise sayings of the bible are usually true. Typically true. All things being equal, the way they describe the universe is exactly right. But sometimes—not always, but sometimes—there are exceptions. Just as verses 4-5 show us: “Don’t answer fools,” but sometimes we can think of a case where a fool might be reformed. “Answer fools,” but sometimes we can think of a case of a really dense fool. Sometimes we follow verse 4, and sometimes verse 5.
In other words, the proverbs aren’t absolute statements. Ecclesiastes (you knew I’d get back to it eventually) is not a book of absolute statements. Generally what Qoheleth says is exactly right. But sometimes there are exceptions. Sometimes hard work does make you happy. Sometimes you can get justice from the government. Sometimes the oppressed do have someone to comfort them (and it’d better be us Christians)!
But because Ecclesiastes is a wisdom writing, we mustn’t look at it as, “Man, Qoheleth is such a pessimist and a cynic, saying nothing means anything, and hard work doesn’t get you anywhere.” In most cases he’s quite right, but even Qoheleth himself would tell you sometimes there are exceptions to what he’s teaching. It’d be foolish to say there aren’t.
People call this kind of wisdom—this kind of judging which proverbs to follow depending on the situation, as situational ethics. What we choose to do, what’s right and what’s wrong, depends on the situation.
And no surprise, there are certain Christians who absolutely hate the idea of situational ethics. They insist, “No no no; there’s right, and there’s wrong, and right and wrong never, ever change.” And okay yes, there are some things that are always right and always wrong. Following Jesus is always right. Loving God and loving your neighbor is always right. Not stealing, not murdering, not committing adultery; 10 commandments stuff is always right. But when there’s not a biblical command spelling out absolute right and wrong… we gotta use our heads. We gotta use wisdom.
The Christians who hate situational ethics are doing this mostly because—like all the guys who love to teach about their favorite biblical principles—they don’t want us to use the wisdom God gave us, on the things they teach. They don’t want us to challenge them with, “Now wait a minute, what about this situation.” They don’t accept there are exceptional circumstances to the things they teach. They want you to follow them, every time, without question, without challenging them. Like a cult member.
And no, I’m not saying those guys are trying to start cults. I’m just saying they don’t really understand the bible’s wisdom genre. They treat the proverbs, and their biblical principles, as if they actually are commands, because the bible is absolutely, always true. Not usually true, as we see in wisdom literature: Always true. No exceptions. Since their biblical principles are based on bible, they too are always true, so you must follow them or you’re sinning.
You can see how a wrong understanding of the scriptures can lead to wrong teachings and legalism. The thing about legalism, is there’s no wisdom involved in it whatsoever. We’re never meant to use our heads. Don’t ask questions; just obey the legalists.
So, back to Ecclesiastes again. When we read it, we need to recognize Qoheleth is usually right. Yes, sometimes we’re gonna think of exceptions to his sayings. Sometimes we’re gonna think, “Wait, but sometimes the best people do win, and sometimes the rich don’t get away with evildoing.” And yeah, sometimes! But usually things are as Qoheleth says it. Human nature hasn’t changed any in 24 centuries. Sorry.