A few years ago, I was in a conversation with someone who knew the Bible well. He quoted verses quickly and confidently, and everything he said was technically accurate. But as I listened, I could feel something was off. The tone was sharp. The posture was defensive. Scripture sounded less like nourishment and more like ammunition.
That moment clarified something important for me: how we read Scripture shapes the kind of discernment we practice and the kind of people we become. Biblical discernment begins with reading posture. It means receiving the Bible as God’s revelation centered on Jesus Christ, interpreting each passage within the whole story of Creation, Fall, and Restoration, and allowing the Word to form faithful lives rather than fuel reaction.
You’ve likely seen this too. Two believers can read the same passage and walk away very different. One becomes steady, patient, and humble. The other becomes anxious, suspicious, or argumentative. The text has not changed, but the posture has.
That is why how we read matters.
Why How We Read Matters
None of us comes to Scripture empty-handed. We carry assumptions, fears, preferences, and experiences that quietly influence what we notice and what we emphasize. If we approach the Bible primarily looking for confirmation, we will usually find it. If we read searching for threats, we will begin to see them everywhere.
But if we come looking for Christ, we will find Him.
Jesus said:
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.”
(John 5:39)
In that moment, Jesus was not diminishing Scripture. He was correcting posture. The Scriptures were always meant to bear witness to Him, and when that center is lost, even careful study can become disconnected from life.
Discernment begins with this orientation. It is not first about spotting error. It is about seeing clearly.
Scripture as Revelation, Not Ammunition
Over the years, I have watched sincere believers grow weary because they felt responsible to defend every verse as though Scripture were fragile. That burden slowly reshaped their reading habits. Instead of opening the Word to be formed, they opened it to fortify arguments.
That is not the call.
Paul reminds Timothy:
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”
(2 Timothy 3:16)
Notice the direction of that verse. Scripture teaches, corrects, and trains. It forms a people who belong to a reigning King. It does not exist to fuel constant combat, but to shape faithful lives within restored fellowship.
When you open your Bible, you are not stepping into a debate hall. You are entering God’s self-revelation, where He patiently reveals His character, His purposes, and His restoring work through Christ. That reality lowers the temperature of discernment and replaces anxiety with steadiness.
Christ at the Center
Every page of Scripture moves toward Jesus, whether in promise, preparation, fulfillment, or hope. After His resurrection, Luke tells us that Jesus walked with two disciples and reinterpreted the story they thought they understood.
“Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”
(Luke 24:27)
That scene matters because it shows us how to read. Jesus did not discard the earlier Scriptures, nor did He isolate select passages. He showed that the entire story finds coherence in Him.
If Christ is not central in our reading, something else will take that place. Fear can take it. Speculation can take it. Reaction can take it. But when Christ remains at the center, interpretation becomes anchored in His present reign and in His promised restoration.
Because Jesus reigns now, we read from stability, not from panic.
Reading in the Whole Story
Scripture is not a loose collection of inspirational sayings or disconnected commands. It tells a unified story that begins with fellowship, moves through rupture, and unfolds toward restoration.
Genesis opens with humanity created in God’s image, designed for communion and trust.
“So God created man in his own image…”
(Genesis 1:27)
The Fall introduces separation, suffering, and death, not as arbitrary punishments, but as the consequence of fractured fellowship. Yet even there, God’s response is pursuit rather than abandonment. He seeks, speaks, covers shame, and promises restoration.
The story does not end in exile. It moves toward renewal.
“Behold, I am making all things new.”
(Revelation 21:5)
When you read within that arc of Creation, Fall, and Restoration, difficult passages find their place. Commands are understood within covenant relationship. Warnings are seen as loving calls back to communion. Hope is anchored not in escape, but in the renewal of what God has always purposed to restore.
Reading inside the whole story guards you from panic and protects you from isolating verses in ways that distort God’s character.
Discernment as Formation, Not Reaction
Scripture calls believers to test teaching, but it never calls them to live in suspicion. Discernment is an act of allegiance to Christ, not an expression of fear.
John writes:
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God…”
(1 John 4:1)
Notice the tenderness of that address: Beloved. Testing flows from belonging. We evaluate teaching not to elevate ourselves, but to remain faithful to the One who reigns.
Because Christ’s victory is secure, spiritual warfare is not frantic. The enemy works through deception, accusation, and distortion, and those strategies are answered with truth received humbly and lived faithfully. When discernment is shaped by Scripture as revelation rather than ammunition, it produces humility, endurance, and peace.
Discernment formed this way does not make you anxious. It makes you steady.
Discernment formed by Scripture produces peace, not pressure. If you would like to practice this carefully, you can walk through our guide to test teaching against Scripture, which models a calm, step-by-step process rooted in the Bible.
A Word About Our Posture
For a fuller explanation of our interpretive posture, see our dedicated page: How We Read Scripture.
That page explains our method carefully and in detail. This reflection is about the heart you bring when you open the Word and the kind of person you are becoming as you read it.
Are you approaching Scripture to master it, or to be mastered by the King who speaks through it?
Scripture is not fragile, and Christ is not threatened. The Kingdom does not rise or fall on our ability to defend it. Because Jesus reigns now and is restoring what was fractured in Eden, we are free to read patiently, thoughtfully, and without fear.
Stay in the Word. Let it shape how you see and how you live. Let it form discernment that is calm, confident, and rooted in Christ’s present reign and promised return.
Christ reigns. Christ restores. Christ will return.
Spread the Gospel; lives depend on it!
I pray, MARANATHA! (Come Quickly, Lord Jesus!)
Your brother in Christ,
Duane