As a Christian I believe the Bible to be the inspired word of God. By that I mean that the Spirit of God was at work in its recording and preservation and that we can literally take 'inspiration' from it today. What I don't mean is that it descended from a cloud, that every word of it comes directly from God and that it can be used indiscriminately as some kind of instruction book. As I've said before, if the Bible were intended as a set of instructions a class of eight year olds could have come up with a more coherent set.

Many non believers seem to dismiss the bible as a set of irrelevant rules that are life denying and restrictive. They assume, perhaps because they haven't looked at it in a while or didn't understand what they were looking at that it is a set of dos and dont's.

The Bible is a collection of different books, written at different times for different audiences and different purposes. You can't take texts out of context. You have to understand why they were written. For any given text you have to look at who the original audience were, what it meant for them and what it means for us today.

I'm not alone among Christians in finding the books of the Old Testament difficult to come to terms with and to reconcile with Jesus' teachings. Their apparent celebration of a vindictive, partisan God can be difficult to square with Jesus' inclusive, forgiving message.

The first thing to understand is that the texts more correctly known as the Hebrew Scriptures form the context for Jesus' teaching. Jesus was a Jew, speaking to a Jewish audience. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus presents himself as the fulfilment of the Old Testament expectations and uses the law based Old Testament texts to illustrate the higher standards he demands which are around inner holiness rather than outward adherence to religious custom. "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart."

The constant refrain is that adherence to the law is not enough. We can not meet these impossibly high standards but God loves us and if we accept his forgiveness He will take our failures upon himself. 

For me the Gospel and Christ's teachings are at the heart of my faith. I feel bound by the Ten Commandments as Jesus specifically endorsed them. I can relate to the Psalms and the beauty and wisdom of Ecclesiastes and Proverbs but much of the Old Testament is context and background. It poses the questions that Jesus was the answer to.

The Bible was not compiled at a single point in time or near to the time of the events it portrays. Stories were passed on through an oral tradition to be recorded and organised at a much later date. They were not edited in a modern sense to form a coherent whole. Rather bits that had been treasured were retained. Close study will reveal for instance that the early chapters of Genesis have two contradictory accounts of the creation story.

Many of the Old Testament books are a history of the Jewish people and their relationship with God. Significant parts of the text were pulled together during exile and captivity in Babylon. They were written to bolster the Jewish people, remind them of God's power and prepare them for adversity and struggle. As Christians we must view these passages through the prism of the New Testament Gospels and interpret them in the light of Jesus' teachings. It was important for a people in exile to emphasise the power and majesty of God. For us it is more important to understand his forgiveness and mercy. The Old Testament condemns us; in Jesus we are redeemed.

The Psalms of David are among the most beautiful books of the Bible but even they contain violent images and appeals for enemies to be punished and sinners crushed. The thing to appreciate is that they reflect David's preoccupations and the sense that he could bring even his most desperate thoughts to God. Ranting and raving at God is important in the Jewish tradition. There is a story about the Jews at Auschwitz. They put God on trial, found him guilty, then went back to their prayers. It is in the nature of an intimate relationship we can sometimes share our anger. I turn to the Psalms in time of trouble. All human emotion is there. There is a great deal of anger but it's not an instruction book it's an expression of human emotion; poetry.

The central texts for a Christian must always be the gospels. Even here it is helpful to understand how they came to be written. They were not written at a single sitting or close to the events they portray. They would have been passed down orally before being collected at a later date into treasured written fragments that would have been kept and no doubt shared wherever Christians came together.  It's evident from textual study that three of the gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke share a similar source known as Q.  They share a common heritage but have different audiences and emphasise different things. Matthew is written from a Jewish perspective and emphasises Jesus' fulfilment of prophecy whereas Luke is writing for an audience of Gentiles and emphasises different things. The Bible is inspired, the work of the Spirit but it is also the work of human hands and was written in a specific cultural context for an original audience whose understandings and preoccupations would have been very different from our own.

The section of the Bible written most closely to Jesus's life is not the Gospels but the letters of Paul which were written and circulated around Christian communities within 50 years of Christ's death. They are a real window into the lives of the earliest Christians many of whom would have met Christ in the flesh. If they are sometimes difficult to relate to it is because many of the letters are trying to reconcile the Jewish faith of the original followers with the differing customs of gentile converts and understand which elements they needed to cling on to and which discard. The whole, 'is the Old Testament still relevant to us' debate is effectively played out in Paul's letters.

The Bible is clearly central to Christian belief but it needs to be treated with respect and caution. We need to temper our own understanding of the text against: the traditional understanding of the text, how it has been understood by the church over centuries and our own understanding from life experience and prayerful reflection. It must always be interpreted in the context of the gospels and Jesus's direct teachings.

I regard the Bible as a sacred and special book. That's a reason to take time to understand what it is saying. It's not a reason to use it carelessly to mean whatever I want it to say. It's too often used to justify actions and attitudes that are totally out of keeping with the gospel message.