Rule of "Audience" (Was re: The Rich Man)

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Matthew Bell
I look forward to seeing your argument, as it does not appear to me that
what
you posit is possible. As you will well know a rule of Biblical
interpretation
is to ask to whom is the passage written. In this case the answer is it is
written to one seeking to be a disciple/follower of Jesus. Though sincere in
his seeking, the cost of such was too high for him and he was unsuccessful.
Hence the application would be to those seeking to become
disciples/followers
of Jesus, who would be met with the cost of discipleship and their success
or
failure in such dependant on whether they are prepared to pay such a price.

EDWARDS
Matt, I've said this before, but that won't stop me from saying it again.
The rule of asking to whom the passage was written (or to whom the saying
was given) doesn't work very well.  Here are some examples; not all will
apply to your specific church, but I suspect some will.

Paul said "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord" (Eph 5:19, AV).  The
Church of Christ uses this verse as the basis for not allowing instrumental
music in their services (because Paul says make melody in your heart, not on
a piano, organ, pan flute, steel guitar, whatever; note that the audience
was the Ephesians).

Writing to the Corinthians, he said "But every woman that prayeth or
prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even
all one as if she were shaven" (1 Cor 11:5, AV).  At least some churches use
this as a basis for requiring/expecting women to wear hats in church, even
though the audience was the Corinthians.

Paul had this to say to Timothy:  "But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to
usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence (1 Tim 2:12, AV).  This
can be argued as being applicable to all churches and is used as a basis for
excluding women from the ministry (obviously the dominant practice among
Christian churches) and even "Sunday School" teaching.

Now, let's hear from James, the actual brother of Jesus.  James says this:
"Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let
them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord" (James
5:14, AV).  Two notes:  James' epistle was a general one, and he says
nothing about seeing a physician.  And yet, how common is it to forego a
physician in favor of calling the elders and getting annointed?

Regardless of what your specific church practices, I don't think that you
can argue that churches apply the simple rule of "audience" very
consistently at all.  I would suggest that instead, the interpretation of
such passages is very often ad hoc and self-serving - many interpret them in
a way that is comfortable and/or convenient for them (just as some used to
appeal to the bible as justification for the institution of slavery).  You
have said in the past that other considerations apply.  However, we've yet
to see you (or anyone else, for that matter) describe how these
considerations are used in the general case.  Instead, all we typically see
is the end result of your applying these principles to very specific cases,
with no description of the underlying method.  In the absence of a stated
method, the method must be assumed subjective, which necessarily voids the
use of the bible itself to arbitrate differences of opinion.

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