When preparing to prune a weeping Japanese maple for the first time I turned to the source of all authority — YouTube — for guidance.
In the first video, the expert pruner said to start at the bottom to remove any branches touching the ground. Then work my way up.
It all made sense, but I checked out a second video.
With shears in hand, this gardening expert said to always start at the top of the tree by removing any vertical growing branches and work down.
The conflicting directions offered by the two experts were easily grasped. But, most importantly, their different approaches were not as significant as their larger, shared advice.
Both emphasized removing any crossing branches to create airflow and any wayward ones in order to retain the umbrella form of the tree.
Use the right tools, they both advised, and wait until the tree is dormant before pruning.
Reading and interpreting the Bible is much like that. It is a vast and varied collection passed through about a thousand years of wandering and searching.
Its advice is at times confusing, even contradictory.
For example, Proverbs 26:4 says, “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him.”
But the next sentence, verse 5, says, “Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.”
Now I’m confused about how to respond to fools — which is a daily encounter proliferated by social media.
Websites galore, of course, seek to explain away these obvious mixed messages as not contradictions — because belief in a perfect Bible is needed to prop up a fragile faith and to gain obedience to their extracted claims of truth.
Professing Christians are often more defensive of their preferred theory of biblical inspiration than of the ways Jesus called his followers to live.
Many defenders of so-called biblical inerrancy will twist themselves and scripture texts like gnarly, overlapping tree branches to present the Bible as a perfectly cohesive, fully consistent volume.
In fact, it’s easy to make a fool of oneself by trying to make the Bible into something it is not and was never intended to be.
That’s why so many of us long stewed in Sunday school, worship, discipleship classes and more were never shown the two varying creation accounts in Genesis. Such simple observations were treated like dominoes that could cause the whole house of faith to crash.
The richness of scripture, however, is not found in its defense but in the honest pursuit of truth.
The Bible is not a catalogue but a collection. It is not a book, but a compilation of varied literary forms weaved from wide and diverse sources.
And the agreement, whether starting at the top or bottom, is greater than the contradictions.
The greatest misuse of the Bible today — as has been done in the past — is to pluck extracted verses to justify abuse in clear violation of Jesus’ life and teachings. To treat the Bible in that way is idolatrous.
Jesus didn’t say, “Follow the Bible verses of your choosing.” He said, “Follow me.”
And he was absolutely clear that all biblical laws and all prophetic teachings hang on — and are to be consistent with — fully loving God and one’s inclusively-defined neighbor.
The thread of justice — treating everyone including the most vulnerable equally, fairly and compassionately — runs throughout the scriptures and is not trumped by some contradictory and culturally influenced form of discrimination or abuse deemed “biblical.”
A great deal of selectively accompanies most efforts at proclaiming biblical truth — seeking validation of a preconception rather than any possible transformation.
For example, a few purity rites get pulled and packaged to condemn all same-sex relationships while missing what Jesus said was the greatest commandment.
Male authoritarianism and white racial superiority are likewise claimed as divine orders when Jesus spent his brief life breaking down those human barriers. Which is a primary reason his life was brief.
These sure, consistent and overriding themes, however, are not usually the ones proclaimed as truth with the prefacing of “the Bible clearly says…”
Complexity is an attribute not a weakness of scripture. For followers of Jesus, however, we have the lens of his life, teachings and calling through which we can discern all truth — biblical and otherwise.
So just run stuff by him.
We can learnmuch from Moses, King David, prophet Isaiah, apostle Paul and the legion of known and unknown seekers of God whose contributions form what we have as the Bible today.
But we are called to follow Jesus. Just run it by Jesus.
John D. Pierce is director of the Jesus Worldview Initiative (jesusworldview.org), part of Belmont University’s Rev. Charlie Curb Center for Faith Leadership. Join us for the second annual Jesus Worldview Conference in Nashville October 12-13, 2026.