How To Avoid Conviction: reading the Bible

This is a how-to guide on how to avoid those awful feelings of conviction that sometimes nag us on our Christian walk. I hope you find it helpful in relieving those annoying feelings of guilt and painful realizations that you may need to change.

There are certain situations that lead one to feel convicted. Each situation requires a different strategy in avoiding said conviction.

Another rough situation is when you are reading the Bible. Chances are that if you got to this one it’s because someone got you feeling convicted about not reading your Bible, so you may need to go back and read a couple of the previous articles on avoiding conviction by other people’s teaching and other people’s example. If you have already gotten here then I am sorry. This one is tough because you can’t really refute what it says, so how do you avoid feeling bad about yourself while scanning through the pages of the Old and New Testament?

1. Stick to the Old Testament. First of all most of those stories are so weird you have to be a genius to get anything out of them anyway. Secondly you can write everything off because it doesn’t apply to the Church. We are the people of the New Testament. Don’t think about it, it’s true. Move on.
2. Try to find another way of interpreting convicting passages. There are always about 50 theories on how to understand any given verse of the Bible. Find one you like, if you can’t, make up a new one. It is actually quite easy.
3. As an aid to the previous step, get Dictionaries of Greek and Hebrew. Find less convicting definitions to difficult words like when it says “God hates” maybe it just means “God likes less,” much easier on the ol’ soul.
4. You can’t call into question the author of the Bible, but you can call into question the person speaking a certain passage. Peter? Denied Christ. Paul? Struggled with the flesh. (or just call him Saul) David? Adulterer and murderer. Solomon? Polygamist and idol worshiper. Feeling better already right?
5. If all else fails just stop reading. If you already have the major Bible stories down, then you’re good. Noah parting the Red Sea, David and the Lions Den, Moses killing Goliath… yeah, you’re good!