What do we do when a biblical command seems morally wrong?
By Will Bourne · Question 86
The direct answer
Name the command accurately and examine it. Do not pressure yourself to call harm good before the interpretive and moral questions have been addressed. Christians must also explain how conscience and Scripture relate when they appear to conflict.
Fuller explanation
First ask what kind of text it is. Does it command conduct, describe conduct, regulate an existing practice, or record someone’s claim about God? Distinctions matter, but we should not relabel an actual command as mere description because it is difficult.
Then ask who is addressed, what the words mean in context, and how Christians believe the passage relates to Christ and later teaching. A command to ancient Israel is not automatically a direct instruction to a Christian today. Establishing that limit still may not resolve the moral question about its original setting.
An ancient background can explain why a practice existed without showing why a good God would authorize it. Source Question 10 identifies slavery and commanded destruction as distinct problems. A fuller answer must address the specific text rather than offer a reassuring general statement about culture.
Christians approach the tension differently. Some understand troubling commands as particular divine judgments or accommodations. Others distinguish the writers’ understanding from God’s fullest revelation in Christ. Those accounts make different claims about authority and need different defenses. We should not move between them without acknowledging the change.
Conscience is also capable of error, so moral discomfort alone does not settle interpretation. But that does not make discomfort worthless. It can identify an issue requiring attention. The answer should give reasons for a conclusion, not demand that the reader suspend moral judgment merely because a speaker used God’s name.
The objection we still need to face
Are you putting human judgment above God?
That objection assumes the contested interpretation has already been established as God’s judgment. Readers use human judgment to identify, translate, interpret, and apply a text. A Christian account must explain why that process supports this conclusion and how it distinguishes divine authority from human error.
Scripture and its use
Leviticus 25:44–46; 1 Samuel 15:1–3; Matthew 5:17–48; Mark 7:6–13. These are contrasting texts for specific study, not an argument that one quotation automatically cancels another.
Read these passages in their surrounding chapters alongside the explanation.