Reading the Bible

I've been thinking a bit about interpreting the Bible as I've been wrestling with some difficult passages over the last while.

What I am finding challenging these says is people who make biblical interpretation complicated. They push us to get back to the original texts. We've got to look at the context of the passage. What would Jewish listeners at the time have thought? Etc.etc

I believe these are all important and helpful and I would encourage every believer to study and be able to understand the times in which the Bible was written as much as possible.

But what concerns me is that we're making it very hard for the average person to really understand the text and we're using these things to undermine the plain and literal reading of the biblical text.

We use context to ignore passages that call us to live differently from how we currently live...either to do what we don't or to stop what we do.

I just wonder how we would live if we read the bible plainly and just did what it said....

Might be an interesting experiment...anyone care to join me?