The First Principles Principle

In the discussion of theology and practice, there are often complaints about the adequacy of the Bible. "Why isn't it clearer?" "Why doesn't it cover everything?" And, of course, most commonly, "You know, the Bible is silent on that subject, so you can't say ..." It would seem that a large number of people are quite confident that the Bible has, in the final analysis, very little to say about life. Oh, sure, sex outside of marriage is wrong ... but, wait, is it? And clearly the Bible is opposed to lying, right? Maybe not. Now, come on! Isn't there something that is clear?

There is more than one reason that this problem arises. The most obvious one is that many who are reading and interpreting Scripture do so without any genuine relationship with God. We know that "Natural Man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor 2:14). What do you expect? Just as common is the group of people who are trying to decide what the Bible says is right and wrong ... without actually reading the Bible very much. They'll go on whatever they heard without digging into God's Word for themselves. Not helpful. But even among genuine believers with genuine hearts aimed at following God it can get ... dicey. I mean, look, the Bible doesn't say, "Thou shalt not allow a person of one gender to marry a person of the same gender", does it? So how do we know? God's Word does not say, "Thou shalt not have an abortion", so on what basis would we say that it's wrong? And these unclear concepts seem to multiply. I mean, obviously the Bible doesn't talk about, say, the rules of the road or whether or not it's okay to smoke marijuana, so how do we decide? It's just not clear. And equally obvious is the fact that a book finished 2,000 years ago that encompassed every subject for all time would be ludicrous to its authors ("Seriously, God, what is this 'automobile' I'm writing about here?") and ultimately unusable for its size to anyone else.

Is there any hope, then? Are we out of luck? I don't think that God left us that much in the dark. I think that God did a much better job than many of us realize. I refer to what I call the principle of first principles. Here's the idea. God made certain principles abundantly clear in His Word. If we apply these principles to life as the basis of our decisions on what is or isn't acceptable to God, we can hit just about every part of life without a lot of fogginess.

Take, for instance, abortion. God did not say anything about modern abortions or the rights of the unborn. So? Well, what did He say? He said, "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in His own image" (Gen 9:6). So, murder is a sin. And God even gives His reason for it: "God made man in His own image." A first principle. So, what about that grumpy old guy on the corner? Is he "man"? Of course he is. Killing him would be wrong. And that young punk who runs the company because his dad owns it? Yes, he's an earlier stage of the same "man". Killing him would be wrong. Oh, now wait. What about that teenage kid who keyed your car for no reason? Everyone knows that teenagers are a breed of their own. No, of course not. That age group is simply another stage of life for the same "man". So is pre-teen, childhood, toddler, and infant. All of these are stages of "man". And so is "unborn". That fetus in its various pre-birth processes is simply going through various stages of human life that started when the sperm fertilized the egg, forming a new entity distinct from both mother and father. So, if "God made man in His own image" (first principle) and, therefore, "man" is under God's protection, killing that fetus would be shedding the blood of man -- murder. No one is unclear on the morality of murder. End of evaluation. Without direct words in the Bible saying, "Abortion is a sin", first principles show the answer without any confusion.

This works itself out all over the place. Some of God's "first principles" make so much of life's choices so much clearer. For instance, if the first principle is "To God alone be the glory", you can only imagine the ramifications when it comes to questions about "Why did God allow that to happen?" or "When is it okay to ignore God's commands?" If the first principle is "You shall love the Lord your God with all your being", the ripple effect goes everywhere in your life. If the first principle is "love your neighbor as yourself", that has a lot to say about so many aspects of every day living. "Is it okay for me to play my music as loud as I want?", for instance, is answered immediately ... without a line in the Bible that says, "Thou shalt not play your stereo loud enough to disturb your neighbors" (as if Moses would have had a clue what that meant when he wrote it). Just a simple example.

First principles are important. They are the basis from which second and third principles are derived. While "Thou shalt" and "Thou shalt not" statements tell us what we should and shouldn't do, first principles tell us why. And while the imperatives may seem clearer, first principles are far more helpful because they extend beyond the limitations of trying to address every single possible circumstance and give a foundation on which everyone who seeks to please God can stand with some clarity. God didn't leave us in the dark here. We will, however, have to look. That's not too much to ask, is it?