I’d give you +5000 claps but it won’t let me.

You’ve hit the nail on the head, my friend. Many issues stem from taking the Bible as a book. It’s not a book but an anthology, a mixture of different literary styles written over thousands of years. It’s not just an account. It’s full of poetry, song, sonnets, articles, opinion pieces, letters, eyewitness accounts, folklore and constitutional thinking.

This mix is what makes it such a wonderful text but also why so many people read it wrong. Every book in the bible has to be read within the context from which it was written.

The biggest takeaway is that the early first century church had no Bible, just some handwritten copies of letters and accounts secreted away from the Romans. This is how we have to approach our faith, by following the example of Jesus and not a list of rules. And that example was to try really hard (and it is really hard) to live a life of ‘others first’ self sacrifice by showing love and forgiveness to everyone you meet.