The Bible is not your local smorgasbord.

Sometimes people who study their Bible think they are at a smorgasbord; they sample all interpretations of a passage until they meet the one that they like. Then they “dish” out the interpretation that they like and say that is now their main course, or the one in which they believe. Such a process of interpretation is bound to bad ends; the only question pertinent in reading Biblical passages is what is God saying. It little matters what we believe unless it coincides with what God is trying to communicate. Anything else leads us down errant paths, away from the very God trying to teach us.