Digging
Blue v18-20 Ch 8 Judv18 Gideon asked, "What kind of men did you kill?"
"Men like you."
v19 "Those were my brothers, the sons of my own mother. As
surely as the LORD lives, if you had spared their lives, i would
not kill you." (v20) Turning to his oldest son, Gideon said,
"Kill them!" But Jether did not draw his sword because he
was only a boy and was afraid.
Jether didn't obey his dad so was he dishonoring his father & breaking the command to obey his Father & Mother (Ex 20:12/Mt 15:4)? Or disobeying Colossians 3:20 - Children, obey your parents in all things...?
Up on the surface of the story where the principle is being applied the answer is yes. Beneath the surface the answer is no. Mercy triumphs over judgment {(principles) Jms 2:13}. We dig up some mercy from beneath the surface then apply it on top of the principles. 
The kid was young & afraid. Should he be criticized for this? Execution is not exactly an easy thing to commit. Was he really dishonoring or was he struggling with thoughts of not wanting to kill somebody?During spiritual youth where we've taken a christian principal then applied it toward everyone, generalizing it because this puts everyone on the same level and it's how we are able to turn our stories into black or white, good or bad issues, which is not a bad idea except rarely is there enough patience exerted to be able to get to the Mercy below the surface which is able to solve the issues.
~Laws show us who to blame
~Mercy shows us who to forgive
Principles are equivalent to laws and laws do not save us only expose us or point to workable boundaries that can be controlled and monitored. Everybody on the planet could drive 55mph to obey the speed limit law but that is not going to prevent us from having more car accidents. Jesus wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us...nailing it to the cross, having disarmed principalities & powers...triumphing over them (Col 2:14-15).
~Mt 5:37 Principals help to keep our Yes "yes" and our No "no" and is to be applied in our stories on a case by case basis. Patience will allow enough time to discover how many parts are the "yes" and how many parts are the "no" so it doesn't matter that after analyzing the story both answers are discovered within it. The fact that any story can be separated or broken down into parts is not the case of confusion, of wavering, or of doubt. It is rather an ability to discern, to apply decisiveness, then let as many parts in the story as you want, but it is also to allow the room for the Patience to dig around below the surface that it may bring the Mercy up toward the principles so that Mercy may then swallow up everything else.
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