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The Singles group at Hope Bible Church met Tuesday night and compiled this quick study on the Model of Genuine Friendship patterned after the relationship between David and Jonathan.  Before poring over the relevant texts in 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel — a number of cultural obstacles to intimate friendships were identified:

- Everyone is so busy — living in our rat race society; difficult to take the time to build friendships;

– Distance creates a problem — just look around the room and you see those who came from Balt City, from Silver Spring, from White Marsh, etc.

– We live in such an independent society; people don’t admit to their need of support and encouragement from others;

– People are reluctant to be vulnerable and let others get close to them;

– Movement away from the extended family and any sense of community

– There is potential pain involved in investing in a close relationship that might lead to heartache down the road;

David Hoke has an excellent message on Loneliness and Friendship: "Loneliness has to do with the isolation we feel when we have no meaningful relationships with people."

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The last week has been a disaster for Roger Clemens as his blustery denials have blown up in the midst of compounded allegations about marital infidelities. One is reminded of all of the words from the Book of Proverbs that now seem appropriate in light of a reputation of a star pitcher that has been shattered beyond repair.

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According to Wikipedia:

Situational ethics, or situation ethics, is a Christian ethical theory that was principally developed in the 1960s by the Episcopal priest Joseph Fletcher. It basically states that sometimes other moral principles can be cast aside in certain situations if love is best served; as Paul Tillich once put it: ‘Love is the ultimate law’. The moral principles Fletcher is specifically referring to are the moral codes of Christianity and the type of love he is specifically referring to is ‘Agape’ love. Agap? is a term which comes from Greek which means absolute, universal, unchanging and unconditional love for all people. Fletcher believed that in forming an ethical system based on love, he was best expressing the notion of ‘love thy neighbour’, which Jesus Christ taught in the Gospels of the New Testament of the Bible. Through situational ethics, Fletcher attempted to find a ‘middle road’ between legalistic and antinomian ethics. Fletcher developed situational ethics in his books: The Classic Treatment and Situation Ethics.

Fletcher believed that there are no absolute laws other than the law of Agap? love and all the other laws were laid down in order to achieve the greatest amount of this love. This means that all the other laws are only guidelines to how to achieve this love, and thus they may be broken if the other course of action would result in more love.

Christians have reacted against the tenets of Fletcher’s proposed ethical system because the law of Christ and the moral principles laid out in the Scriptures should not be set aside for subjective interpretation of what is the most loving and expedient thing to do. That is true for situations where there is a clear moral right and wrong position. But as the Apostle Paul explains in this passage which concludes his teaching on the issue of eating meat offered to idols, there are occasions where situational ethics must be employed in light of the reality of the Christian’s liberties.

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Paul continues his general discussion about the propriety of believers eating meats offered to idols. This was the subject introduced back in 8:1 “Now concerning things sacrificed to idols.” The context in this paragraph (10:14-21) relates to participation or at the least association with the culture of false, man-made worship. Instead of actively confronting the evil and the contradictions to biblical truth and practice, the individual adopts a very careless and ecumenical spirit of indifference towards the upholding of truth regarding the One True God. Christianity is a narrow, exclusivistic approach to the worship of God. We need Paul’s strong admonition here to “Flee from idolatry.” Once we understand the danger of the demonic activity behind false religions and the jealousy we will provoke from a holy and powerful God we should act sensibly in this area.

All of the attention surrounding the visit of the Pope to the United States this past week causes me to address the elephant in the room (No, I am not calling the Pope an elephant.) There are definite aspects of idolatrous worship wrapped up in the formal Roman Catholic system that would fall under Paul’s condemnation in this passage. (See J. C. Ryle’s notes below that address some of these details.) That does not mean that Catholics cannot be saved and sincerely worship the Lord Jesus in spirit and truth. But their formal catechized system contains numerous elements that seriously deviate from the system of faith and worship taught in the Scriptures. Should genuine believers remain in the Roman Catholic Church despite their recognition of some of its false teachings? The Apostle Paul would argue an emphatic “No” from this text.

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Ecclesiastes 6:1–12
Chapter 12: The Few Years of a Futile Life (6:1–12)

Solomon continues on with his investigation of life “under the sun.” His gloomy perspective remains consistent: “There is an evil which I have seen under the sun and it is prevalent among men” (v.1). You might look around and see those who seem to have grabbed ahold of the good life. But if you could see into the heart you would discover that there still is no lasting enjoyment and satisfaction. At this point the book has become somewhat repetitive as the Preacher cycles around to familiar themes and revisits them from a fuller or slightly different vantage point. When it gets to the ultimate questions regarding the point of this life, Solomon in all of his wisdom cannot make sense of his earthly existence. He is left with unanswered speculations.

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