We aren’t always clear in our own minds if the advice we’re offering is biblically informed or culturally conditioned. This is perhaps especially true for conservative Christianity or Evangelicalism. The areas of sex and politics are obvious examples. Aspects of our Christian culture are very often mere artefacts of another culture. Like the British museum, many of these were smuggled in years ago and their heritage is now rightly contested.

A while back I posted a miscellany of bad advice offered by Christians. Most of the examples in that article weren’t singular or specific, but common enough to be heard from more than one source. This, I argued in a second article, is a major reason why so much advice shared among Christians is unhelpful: it’s recycled, impersonal, and platitudinal.

In what will likely conclude this series on advice, I want to outline a few more reasons why I believe Christians tend to trade in bad advice. These reasons aren’t arranged in any particular order, and no doubt overlap slightly.

1. We Hide Behind Caveats

“Look, I’m not telling you what you should do.” “Take this advice with a pinch of salt.” “This is just my two cents.” I’m sure you’ve heard other—and very likely have your own—caveats tied to the offering of counsel and advice. But by couching our advice in these sorts of qualifications we fail doubly. First, we lack the integrity to stand by the advice we’ve been asked to give. Second, we love ourselves and our reputation ahead of the person seeking counsel.

Tied to this problem is the broader issue of hiding behind the related spheres of wisdom and conscience. Referring to something as a ‘wisdom matter’ doesn’t excuse you from the consequences, nor does couching your advice in caveats. Only, the realisation that your counsel might have real world implications shouldn’t cause you to never offer it. Rather it should promote much more care, discernment, and thoughtful listening.

2. We Ignore the Worldview Assumptions of Advice

Advice often resembles the Old Testament character of Melchizedek. It appears out of nowhere, without lineage, tribe, or origin (Hebrews 7:3). Just like we can’t trace Melchizedek’s beginnings, a lot of conventional Christian advice seems to have simply materialised. And now it lives and moves and has its being by mere virtue of its existence. Thus we don’t theologically examine advice, probing its assumptions along with the worldview behind it.

For example, quite a few readers asked me why I thought suggesting having a few extra drinks on the night of your honeymoon is bad advice. Of course, God doesn’t prohibit drinking alcohol. Wine gladdens the heart (Psalm 104:15), and at other times it can fulfil practical functions (1 Timothy 5:23). Both of those texts seem applicable in the case of using drink to take the edge off on honeymoon night. But upon reflection, the advice to get a little tipsy is bad because it doesn’t alleviate the tremendous pressure—typically on women—-to have sex that first night.

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