[I’ve written about this before, but it is an important topic that I thought could use a little updating]

Not everyone interprets and understands the Bible or scripture the same way.

People all over the world interpret the Bible from many different religious, political, and professional perspectives.  These people may read scripture through the lens of an agnostic, an archaeologist, an atheist, a Muslim, a Jew, a professor of religion, a historian, a professor of literature, or a combination of any of these as well as dozens of others.  All of these people read and interpret the Bible in their own particular way – through their own particular lens.

For people who are not Christians it is sometimes confusing how Christians interpret and understand the Bible.

The first thing to understand is just how important the Bible is to Christians. Christians are people who have committed their lives to follow the Jesus written about in scripture, who fulfilled prophesies of scripture, who is understood by Christians to be the Messiah of scripture, who studied scripture, lived out scripture, taught from scripture, memorized scripture, and died with scripture on his lips. You could not be a follower of Jesus without a high value of scripture.

This means that for the most part, Christians aren’t going to the Bible to answer questions about history, or science, or ancient literature – though these fields of study can be helpful in understanding the meaning and context of different sections. The Bible is a place that Christians primarily go to for guidance, inspiration, and encouragement throughout their lives.

For example, in Genesis chapter 1, the Bible tells about how God created everything in existence in six days, rested on the seventh day and created men and women in God’s image. Now, some Christians hold the opinion that God created the world in six twenty-four hour days, some don’t, and some don’t care either way. For the most part, it doesn’t really matter to Christians how long it took for God to create the universe. Why not? Because what matters to Christians is that God did it, that God created all that is, created human beings in God’s own image, and rested on the seventh day.

Remember, Christians read the Bible primarily for guidance, inspiration, and encouragement. So for Christians, Genesis 1 means that we should marvel at nature and be good stewards of it. It means that all human life is sacred (the inspiration for the concept of universal human rights in western society has its roots here), and it means that we should take a day off every week to rest and be grateful (if you like your weekends, Genesis 1 via Judeo-Christian influence on western culture deserves at least partial credit. Henry Ford and American unions deserve credit for the other part – Saturday – but their decision was probably also influenced by the concept of universal human rights, ergo Genesis 1).

What about when the Bible contradicts itself? How do Christians interpret scripture then? How do they decide what to do and how to live?

As Christians, as people who are following the Way of Jesus, living with Jesus as their ultimate role model, we interpret scripture through the lens of Jesus – through the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

This means that we give the highest interpretive priority to the example that Jesus set for us, the things that he taught, and particularly to the things he said are most important. Jesus told his followers and us what things are the most important (this means, that according to Jesus, there are teachings and scriptures that are less important than others). In Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus said that loving God and loving our neighbor is more important than anything else. In Matthew 7:12 Jesus said the “Love your neighbor” thing again but a little differently – that treating others way we would like to be treated is more important than all the other rules and teachings.

This interpretive lens leads us to make our primary questions:  “What would Jesus do?” “What best expresses my love for God in this situation?” “What would best express God’s love to my neighbor?”  “How would I want someone to treat me or speak to me in this situation?”

Let me give you some examples.

Let’s say someone hits you and knocks one of your teeth out. What do you do? Exodus 21:23-24 says that you should knock their tooth out, but in Matthew 5:38-48 Jesus says that you shouldn’t retaliate, you shouldn’t try to get even, that you should love and pray for the person who knocked your tooth out (see how Jesus created that contradiction in scripture with one of his “You’ve heard it said…but I tell you…” statements?).

So what should you do?

If you are a Christian, a follower of Jesus, you go with what Jesus says and don’t try to get even but love and pray for the person.

That was an example of Jesus’ teachings taking priority over other scripture, but what about when there is a conflict between two things that Jesus says? What about when you can act in love towards your enemy or your neighbor but not both? I wrote about that in “Loving Both Neighbors and Enemies in the Way of Jesus” but the short answer is, in those situations you go with the one that Jesus says is most important – which is loving your neighbor, the second greatest commandment.

What about situations that Jesus does not address but other scriptures do?

For example, how should Christians treat homosexuals? There are seven verses in the Bible that mention homosexuality but Jesus never mentions it one way or another. Some Christians interpret these scriptures as clear condemnations of homosexual acts. Other Christians interpret these scriptures in the Old Testament as part of the broader condemnation of the sexual acts used in worshiping pagan gods and therefore a condemnation of idolatry and not homosexual acts and the New Testament scriptures a condemnation of pederasty – a common practice in the Greco-Roman world of adult males having sex with young boys. These Christians see no condemnation in scripture of life-long, covenantal, same-sex relationships and would apply the same biblical ethic of love and faithfulness to homosexuals as they do to heterosexuals.

So some Christians believe the Bible categorically condemns homosexual relationships and some do not. How should these two groups of Jesus followers treat homosexuals? Basically their different viewpoints on this do not, or should not, make much of a practical difference in most situations.

Even though Jesus doesn’t say anything specifically on the topic, using Jesus as our interpretive lens still leads us to make our primary questions:  “What would Jesus do?” “What best expresses my love for God in this situation?” “What would best express God’s love to my neighbor?”  “How would I want someone to treat me or speak to me in this situation?”

Regardless of whether a Christian thinks that the Bible categorically condemns homosexual relationships as wrong or not, we have clear teachings and an example from Jesus on how we should treat them. We should treat them the way we want to be treated, love them like we love ourselves, serve and sacrifice for them the way that Jesus served and sacrificed for both his enemies, his betrayers, and his friends. They should feel loved by us.

There are a lot of ways different people interpret the Bible, but this is how Christians do it – through the life and teachings of Jesus. We ask, “What would Jesus do?” “How are we to understand this section of scripture in light of the primary truth that God loves us, God wants us to love God and to love each other, and to treat each other like we would like to be treated?”

I hope this helps both Christians and non-Christians understand the Christian life a little better.