When I read the Bible, am I to read it as (a) words for me to live by or (b) words for thee to live by.
The problem comes, ISTM, when I try to move from (a) to (b).
Take the bit about the "contradictions." Anyone who has spent serious time with the Bible has had this experience. Finding one passage that seems to say X while another passage says not-X.
My sense is this happens most frequenly as we try to reconcile Old and New Testaments, but that could just be me. And certainly one need not bring both Old and New together if allyou aredoing is seeking a contradiction to complain about.
However, I would think less of the Bible if I never encountered those apparent contradictions.
When I find acontradiction I take that as a place where I need to be thinking more deeply. Where *I* need to be trying to untangle and resolve my understanding. That I must not get distracted by what I know, and istead focus more carefuly on reducing my own ignorance.
That iis what I should do. What I have done, all too often, however, is one of two things. Either I treat the apparent contradiction as an actual one, reject the Bible's authority, and make let my understanding be shaped by other criteria and other sources. Or I ignore the apparent contradiction and simply accept whichever Bibleical "interpretation" that best fits my pre-existing beliefs.
What I should do when I see an apparent contradiction in the Bible is see it as a message to me that I need to be listening harder to God. Not listening more to myself.
For me, I have no need to figure out what the Bible says on homosexuality because I have never been tempted in that direction in any way. I do need to figure out what the Bible says on toleration because I have been tempted to both tolerance and intolerance. I do need to figure out what the Bible says on idolatry because I regularly find myself tempted in that direction (see, e.g., Jessica Biel).
I may tell people I think they need to read the Bible more, but I try very hard not to tell them what to read in the Bible, much less how to read it or which translation to read or any of that. To my mind, the reason they need to read the Bible more is that they need to deepen their personal relationship with God, that they need to listen more for what God is telling them in that relationship.
Not because I think they are sinners by committing specific actions. Not because I think their actions are sins.
I do think they are sinners. Of course. I think we are ALL sinners. But it isn't my job to categorize their sins or point out specific sins or decry specific sinful acts. Insofar as I have a duty to my fellow man it is to show myself in relationship with God and to find ways to help people get in relationship with Him so that He can instruct them. *I* am not a teacher on questions of sin. I'm just a student, a fellow traveller.
Quoting Scripture can be dangerous. To me, one should strive to limit how one quotes scripture. Quote it to articulate my own belief, sure: frankly, I can't say some things I believe as well as Solomon or Matthew or Paul did. Quote it to highlight the specifics of my attempts to listen to God's guidance for me -- that, too, absolutely.
But quoting it as evidence of how other's are supposed to listen, of how others are supposed to specifically shape their own personal relationships with God? That's much more problematic, it seems to me.
Especially if one believes, as I do, in the new covenant of Jesus Christ as Savior. Did I not believe that Gospel rules, did I believe that the Law of God was the law of Moses, it might be different. But I don't believe that way.
I'm a Lutheran, so I believe in the priesthood of all believers. Ordained or not, I am a priest. But I am a priest whose only message is the Good News. I am not a priest of Moses. The obedience of others to the law is not my job; my job is to help them have faith in Him.
This I believe.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Romans 12:2 (NKJV)