A Helpful Tip for Understanding Difficult Bible Passages
What do you do when you come across a passage that is hard to discern or even utterly out of step with what you assume God is like? What do you mean I am supposed to hate my father and mother and family in order to follow Jesus? If something like this happens to you, here is a good rule of thumb to help you understand difficult Bible passages:
Major on the majors, not the minors.
By this, I mean, to start your journey of interpretation by asking big theological questions rather than parsing words and sorting through theological minutiae.
Jesus taught that there are “greater and lesser matters of the law,” and he modeled this approach often. So while his critics were trying to parse out the definition of “work” when it came to the Sabbath (a minor note), he centered his thinking on the relentless mercy of God (a major note).
The great preachers of the American Civil Rights Movement also modeled this approach to Bible interpretation. Rather than parse out Paul’s instructions to Philemon (a minor note), their sermons centered on the liberating justice of God (a major note).
This approach is also helpful when considering how the Bible might inform our thinking on same-sex relationships and marriage. Certainly, you can have a theological food fight about six verses if you want. Lots of people take this approach. But trust me: everything shifts when you instead start with the steadfast and unconditional love of God.
We can and should debate the meaning of the Bible’s minor notes. But if your interpretation on a minor note obliterates a major note—it makes God unmerciful, unjust, or unloving—it’s a pretty good indicator that you’ve gotten it wrong.
For more, see this video clip where I discussed this approach: