How (Not) to Read the Bible: Making Sense of the Anti-women, Anti-science, Pro-violence, Pro-slavery and Other Crazy-Sounding Parts of Scripture

by Dan Kimball

The New Testament writings tell us that the strange-sounding verses we’ve read—and all the rest of the 613 different Old Testament laws—were given to convict people everywhere of our inability to follow all that God requires for us to worship him and live in perfect harmony with him and one another. This inability is due to our imperfection and the fallout of sin, and it points us to our need for a Savior. We all fail trying to please God on our own, and this becomes clear as we look at his guidelines. We will never be able to be perfect or to remain constantly holy and set apart from the values of the world. Because of this, we ultimately need a way of being clean before God and forgiven for our shortcomings. This is why Jesus came. The Old Testament and all the things written in this first section of the Bible point us to our full need for Jesus (Romans 7:7–9; Galatians 3:24). When Jesus came and died on the cross and rose again, it revealed a major shift in how we relate to God, and we see this change reflected in the teachings of the New Testament, which give us new guidelines. A new covenant, or arrangement between God and people, began. This new covenant is not limited to a particular people group. Now all can have forgiveness and be seen as holy and set apart by God, not through what we do, but through what Jesus did. We are set apart by putting our faith in Jesus, and this changes how the laws of the Old Testament function for those who follow Jesus.