Have you ever read the Bible and felt like you're not ‘getting it’? This feeling can stem from approaching the Bible with a faulty paradigm - a framework or set of expectations that shapes our understanding of reality. Paradigms operate subconsciously, guiding how we interpret and understand our experiences. We all bring paradigms when we read and study the Bible. So, it's helpful to examine ourselves and consider which paradigms we've adopted and whether they're helping us understand God’s Word.

Here are three common but unhelpful paradigms for studying the Bible. All three share a ‘reference book mentality’. They treat the Bible like Wikipedia or a dictionary – a source only helpful for answering our questions. We flip through reference books to find the information we need rather than reading them cover to cover. While the Bible addresses human needs and answers our questions, if we read it like a reference book, we miss out on the story it’s telling.

The Bible Is Not a Theology Dictionary

The first of these ‘reference book’ paradigms says, “The Bible is a theology dictionary.” This paradigm treats the Bible like an expert resource on theological matters: how to structure a church, how to deal with the problem of evil, how to understand Jesus’ humanity and deity, etc.

Reading the Bible like this can be helpful. However, when this becomes the sole way we engage with it, we miss the grand narrative of the Bible, the greatest story ever told. We forfeit the richness of a passage if we reach for it simply to make a broader theological point. The best theologians first seek to understand passages of Scripture in their original context, as part of this greatest story, and then derive theological principles from that understanding.

The Bible Is Not a Moral Handbook

It’s not uncommon for people to appeal to the Bible as the basis for their moral beliefs. An overemphasis, however, trains others who follow Jesus (and those who don’t) to see it primarily as a rulebook.

Of course, deriving moral principles from the Bible is necessary – otherwise, we would arrive at moral preferences without any authority but our own. The Bible itself begins with the question, “Who gets to define what is good, humans or God?”.

But instead of only answering moral questions with a set of rules, the Bible invites people into a dynamic process of forming and aligning their ethics and character with God. For example, Jesus affirms the rule against murder and also teaches his disciples that there is a greater depth to it, that anger and hatred within a person’s heart are akin to murder (Matthew 5:21-22). A rulebook tells people what to do and leaves it at that. Instead, the Bible is designed to cultivate wisdom and purity in us and form us into people who need fewer rules because our character has been formed by God through his word.

The Bible Is Not a ‘Devotional Grab Bag’

At best, this paradigm professes a (true) belief that the Bible exists to connect us to the presence of the living God. But, it also focuses attention only on the ‘feel-good’ sections of Scripture that leave us with a strong emotional sensation. In the process, the devotional grab bag paradigm ends up doing what the other reference book paradigms do – sidestepping the full story of the Bible.

Perhaps the Bible has become stale for you, like flicking through the pages of a dictionary or rulebook. Exposing these three unhelpful paradigms is not meant to leave you deflated but hopeful. God gave us the Bible. He could have given us a theological dictionary, a moral handbook or a devotional grab bag if that is what he thought we needed but, he gave us the Bible: a divine-human book that speaks God's word to his people, telling the greatest story ever told that ultimately leads us to Jesus, the one who has power to change lives.