“At church they say we should always believe the Bible, but sometimes it seems like it’s contradicting itself. What’s up with that?” ~ Dave

Hey Dave,

You’re right. Sometimes the Bible is confusing. Like, I could open it up and read, “No one living is righteous before you” (Psalm 143:2b) and then flip over to see, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16b).

If that’s all I looked at, I could come to the conclusion that no one alive should pray because no one alive is righteous and only the prayer of a righteous man is effective.

But that’s not the whole story.

Imagine you’re standing in a store, waiting in line to buy something. The guy in front of you is on a cell phone, talking with a friend. He says, “I’m just not sure what to do with the body. I mean, do I bury it in the backyard?”

You’re thinking, What’s the fastest way out of this store? But what you don’t know is that he’s actually talking about his dog which, sadly, died last night. If you could hear both sides of the conversation, you would know that.

It’s all about context.

So what’s the context for those two verses? How can both verses be correct? Because there’s more to the story.

Romans 3:21-22 says, “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”

On our own, there is no one righteous (like the first verse says), but through Christ we become righteous. That’s the other part of the story that we were missing.

The next time the Bible seems to contradict itself, Dave, try digging deeper. There’s more to the story that explains it. Find that connecting piece, like the other side of the conversation, and things will make a lot more sense.

God didn’t give us the Bible to confuse us. We just have to be willing to read all of it in order to understand it. In a lot of ways, it’s like a puzzle. Looking at one or two little pieces isn’t going to make much sense. You’ve got to put all the pieces together before you can see how it makes sense as a picture.

~ Halee

Got a question? Need some advice? I’d love to help! Email me.