In one sense, the answer to the question, How do you read the Bible? is very simple: you pick it up, open it, and read it. Although the question concerns interpretation, in simple terms, you could treat the Bible like any other book. The same applies to other sacred texts. On the surface, they are merely a collection of words in a particular form and format, and we need to ascribe no additional meaning to them beyond this. 

Yet we also know that the Bible, along with the sacred texts foundational to the world’s religions, has often been read in deeper and more formative ways. So the question remains: how do you read the Bible, especially if you are someone of no particular faith? 

Ultimately, the question concerns influence. How much do we allow the Bible to shape our lives? 

The Bible does not have to affect your life at all. It can remain simply a book. However, when others profess it to be God’s Word and affirm its ultimate authority in their lives, it becomes something we may need to pay attention to. This is especially true when their interpretations shape choices that quietly, and sometimes deliberately, affect ours. 

If you are going to engage people of faith about how they interpret sacred scripture, you cannot stand entirely outside the circle of influence it has over them. For example, you cannot meaningfully critique someone’s interpretation of the Bible by simply denying that it is God’s Word. You do not have to agree that it is divinely inspired, but if you wish to engage meaningfully with those who believe it is, you must acknowledge that basic conviction. 

Rather than undermining your own position, this approach actually creates greater opportunity. It allows you to thoughtfully question the influence scripture has in someone’s life, and with this, challenge the influence it should have in your own. 

One powerful example of this method comes from the apostle Paul’s dismantling of the Law in his letter to the Romans. Paul argues that no one keeps the law entirely, and therefore any appeal to it as a basis for judging others collapses under its own weight. If someone wishes to appeal to the Law to condemn others, they must keep the whole law. 

This includes not only moral injunctions but economic ones. The Law contains the principle of Jubilee, the cancellation of debts and restoration of land. If someone appeals to Leviticus to judge and condemn homosexual people, then consistency would require equal commitment to Exodus and Leviticus, where Jubilee principles are outlined, including radical economic redistribution. This is how the internal logic of scripture begins to dismantle selective judgment. 

This is not about scoring points. It's about using scripture’s own internal witness in the way Paul himself does. More broadly, we want to reduce friction when it comes to engaging with others and these foundational texts. The aim is a peaceful encounter, and again, we can appeal to scripture’s internal witness to help do this. 

It is possible to read the Bible and justify violence, even genocide. Those texts exist, yet the broader arc of the biblical witness bends toward love, mercy, and peace. Many passages speak of God’s steadfast love and call people into lives of compassion and justice. This is the trajectory Jesus draws from the Hebrew Scriptures. It is also how the early church responded after his crucifixion, not with violent retaliation, but with fellowship, generosity, and the continued teaching of peace. Pointing people to the lived example of the founders of their faith carries more weight than abstract theological debate. 

Another challenging aspect of interpretation is the Bible’s own admission that no one fully comprehends the mind of God. While some appeal to texts such as Paul’s statement that all scripture is “God-breathed,” this includes texts that maintain a distance between human understanding and divine reality. God’s ways are not our ways, and God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. Certainty, then, should be held lightly. 

We can acknowledge the extraordinary beauty and power of biblical language and allow ourselves to be inspired by it. At the same time, we may set certain parts aside. That is also not foreign to the Bible itself. The biblical authors reinterpreted earlier texts. Development and re-vision is built into the tradition of receiving God’s Word. The same is true in other faiths. Sacred texts across traditions have generated multiple schools of thought. This diversity is not a failure. It is a feature of being human. 

Our freedom to read and respond to sacred texts means we are not obligated to adopt someone else’s interpretation. There is always space for revision, re-reading, and alternative meanings. It is why humility, not certainty, is our basic posture. By the logic of simply being expressed as written words, no sacred text can ever fully claim to comprehend the fullness of God’s infinite wisdom and mystery. Even when scripture points to the witness of those who are said to manifest the divine in all its fullness, this remains first and foremost a testimony grounded in the written word, and this will always necessitate interpretation. 

If you are looking for a more compassionate reading of the Bible, our Liberated Life Commentaries were written to help.