I've noticed a tendency, in most Bible studiers, to categorize characters into "good guys" and "bad guys."

While the authors of the Bible DO use storytelling techniques to communicate historical truths, we do need to be careful of overgeneralizations of characters into good and bad categories.

When we aren't, there are a few pitfalls we can stumble into:

1. We don't study deeply into moments when "good characters" do less than good things.

2. We refuse to admit that the actions of "good characters" are actually bad and end up justifying evil.

3. We might not notice when stereotypically "bad" characters do good things.

4. We feel cognitive dissonance when we're told that certain characters are "good" but we read about them doing awful things, thus, disenfranchising the biblical text.

5. We feel the need to "play teams" with biblical characters, forgetting that the Bible is more concerned about GOD'S goodness and our discerning of it through people stepping in and out of alignment with His will and way, than it is about individual character's generalized goodness.

Instead, we need to be okay with the fact that Biblical characters are people. As flawed, if not (at times) more so, as you and me.

This will help us process complex individuals better, ensure we're looking through a human lens at.... humans, and keep our mind's focused on discerning good and evil through God's eyes rather than the categories we set up based on our feelings about certain characters.

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Logo: Matt Hernandez

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