The Bible Is Not a Rulebook: How Scripture Offers Wisdom, Not Control
Rethinking How We Read Scripture
If you’ve spent any time around church or religion, chances are the Bible was introduced to you as a kind of rulebook—a divine instruction manual for life. It’s often read like a checklist of what to do and what not to do so you can stay on God’s good side, avoid punishment, and maybe, if you play your cards right, make it to heaven someday. But I want to suggest something different. I want to offer another way to see the Bible—not as a rigid set of commands to be obeyed under threat of judgment, but as a living, breathing invitation into wisdom. Into becoming more human. Into the abundant life that Jesus actually promised.
Why Joshua Matters—Even If It Makes You Uncomfortable
Let’s start in the book of Joshua, which picks up where Moses leaves off. Moses has died, and now his apprentice—his right-hand man, Joshua—is leading the people of Israel into Canaan, the land that had been promised to them. This book follows right after the Torah (the first five writings in the Hebrew Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), which is foundational to the Jewish faith. Joshua steps in as this new leader tasked with bringing the people into the next stage of their journey, but the story quickly gets messy. There’s conquest. War. A lot of bloodshed. It’s a complicated book, and if you read it with open eyes, it will raise some serious questions. It should. These stories aren’t easy. They’re not neat and tidy, and they’re definitely not comfortable. But they are significant because they reveal how the people understood their place in the world, what it meant to follow God, and what it meant to live in covenant with Him in a very specific cultural and historical moment.
What’s often missed is how the book opens—with a verse that many skip right over.
Joshua 1:8 says, “This law scroll must not leave your lips. You must memorize it day and night so you can carefully obey all that is written in it.”
That’s not about blind obedience. That’s about formation. Memorization. Meditation. Sitting in the text long enough for it to shape you. That’s the kind of engagement the Bible invites us into—not checking a box but soaking in something deeper.
Psalm 1 and the People Who Shape You
We see the same idea show up in Psalm 1. It begins,
“How blessed is the one who does not follow the advice of the wicked or stand in the path of sinners or sit in the assembly of scoffers.”
This isn’t just a warning about who you spend time with—it’s a commentary on what shapes you. It’s not about proximity, it’s about posture. It’s not just that you happen to be around toxic people—it’s that you’ve positioned yourself to listen to them, walk in step with them, and sit among them. And what’s the alternative? “He finds pleasure in obeying the Lord’s commands; he meditates on them day and night.”That same word again—meditate. The point isn’t that you’re performing obedience for God like a trained dog; the point is that the text has taken root in your heart and reshaped how you see the world.
Wisdom Over Rules: The Bible as Formation, Not Control
This, I think, is where many of us have misunderstood what the Bible is actually trying to do. We’ve been trained to treat it like a rulebook, a black-and-white set of laws to follow so we don’t mess up. And I get that impulse. I really do. I’m someone who wants to get it right. I don’t like being wrong. But the Bible isn’t designed to give you a bullet-point list of what’s right and wrong in every situation. It’s not a legal code. It’s not an “if-this-then-that” kind of book. It’s wisdom literature. It invites you to wrestle, to reflect, to ask hard questions. It doesn’t always resolve cleanly, and that’s intentional.
How Jesus Taught Wisdom in the Sermon on the Mount
Take Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5 through 7. He talks about how to handle anger, how to navigate promises, what to do when someone wrongs you, how to treat people who hate you, how to pray, how to handle money, how to live free from anxiety. And none of it is about following rules to impress God. It’s about living in a way that reflects the character of God. It’s about becoming the kind of person who naturally lives in step with the kingdom.
Let’s be real—when Jesus says “Don’t worry about your life,” most of us don’t know how to do that. How do you just… not worry? About money, your job, your kids, your future? You can’t just flip a switch and shut that off. That’s why this kind of teaching can’t be treated like a command to obey. It has to be meditated on. Sat with. Repeated. Revisited. Because what Jesus is pointing to is not a surface-level solution but a deeper invitation into trust. Into surrender. Worry is about control. And if I’m gripping everything tightly trying to control the outcome, I’m not letting God lead. So the call to not worry is really a call to release control—to trust that I’m not alone, that I’m seen and cared for.
What Happens When We Use the Bible to Harm
I know some of you reading this may be thinking, “Yeah, Joe, but the Bible has been used to hurt me.” Maybe you’ve had Scripture quoted at you like a weapon. Maybe it was used to keep you silent. Maybe you were told you didn’t belong—because of your questions, your story, your gender, your background, your race. If that’s your story, I want you to know: I see you. And more importantly, God sees you. That kind of weaponizing of the Bible is not the way of Jesus. That’s not what the Bible is for. The Bible was never meant to be used to control or manipulate or exclude. And when we do that, we’re taking something sacred and turning it into something violent. That breaks God’s heart.
A Way Forward: Start With Jesus
There’s a better way. There’s a way forward. And it starts by coming back to the text with new eyes—not as someone trying to pass a test or earn favor, but as someone who is hungry for wisdom. Hungry for wholeness. Curious again. That’s the posture I want to invite you into. Start with the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. Just start with Jesus. Let his words shape how you see the rest. Let the message of his life be the filter you read the Bible through.
Because this whole thing—it’s not about the 10 things you have to do and the 10 things you better not do. It’s about the kind of person you’re becoming. And the Bible, when read rightly, helps you become more fully human. That’s what God wants for you. That’s what Jesus came to offer: life to the full. Not rules to fear. But wisdom to live. That’s the invitation.
