Moralizing

Some preachers who swing for the application green end up in a bunker called moralizing. Eugene Peterson describes and laments this approach:

Somewhere along the way, most of us pick up bad habits of extracting from the Bible what we pretentiously call "spiritual principles," or "moral guidelines," or "theological truths," and then corseting ourselves in them in order to force a godly shape on our lives. 'chat's a mighty uncomfortable way to go about improving our condition. And it's not the gospel way.4

Listen to Graeme Goldsworthy criticize evangelicals for moralizing Old Testament narrative texts instead of basing application on the author's intent:

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We must not view these recorded events [historical narrative] as if they were a mere succession of events from which we draw little moral lessons or examples for life. Much that passes for application of the Old Testament to the Christian life is only moralizing. It consists almost exclusively in observing the behaviour of the godly and godless (admittedly against a background of the activity of God) and then exhorting people to learn from these observations. That is why the "character" study is a favoured approach to Bible narrative — the life of Moses, the life of David, the life of Elijah and so on. There is nothing wrong with character studies as such — we are to learn by others' examples — but such character studies all too often take the place of more fundamental aspects of biblical teaching.5

For example, a typical sermon on 2 Samuel 11-12 might extract the following applications from the story:

• Times of idleness can make us more vulnerable to temptation. If King David had gone out to war with his army in the spring (the usual custom of kings), he would not have put himself in a circumstance where he faced sexual temptation. Likewise, it's the down times in your life that place you in a vulnerable spot. When you decide to quit teaching your Sunday school class, or stop volunteering as an aide in your daughter's kindergarten class, or take a break from singing in your church choir, you can create idleness that leads to boredom and heightened vulnerability to temptation.
• Create a parable when you need to confront someone with their sin. Nathan did this. If he had started by pointing his finger at David and accusing him of committing adultery and murder, David might have committed another murder! However, the parable caught David off guard. Like good stories do, Nathan's parable snuck past David's defenses and nailed him with the truth before he realized what had happened. When you need to confront your sixteen-year-old son or daughter about drinking, create a parable that will lead your teen to see how dangerous and foolish it is before directly confronting him or her for involvement in this activity.

These applications fail because they amount to "don't do what David did here" and "follow Nathan's example." But why reject them? Old Testament scholar Carl Kromtninga notes that the moralizing that voices like Peterson and Goldsworthy reject is a "wrong kind of 'lesson-making' on the basis of Old Testament narrative. They do not reject a 'do' or 'don't' application on the basis of the text; they reject a certain type of 'do' or 'don't' application."6 After all, the apostle Paul recognized the validity of looking at Old Testament narratives for examples of how or how not to live (1 Cor. 10:6, 11).