I often say that God does not give us His word so that we can draw our own conclusions, but so that we can draw His conclusions. When Christians fail to do this, error, heresy, and division, enter the Church.
There are two ways to approach the Bible. The first is called eisegesis. This is when we form an opinion before approaching the Bible, and thus we read the Bible in light of that. One example of this in our modern culture would be Old Earth Creationism. Old Earth Creationists assume before they come to the Bible that the world is millions of years old, and so they read that into the text. In reality, you could never come to the conclusion that the world is millions of years old based purely on the Bible. Indeed, prior to the secular acceptance of old earth philosophies, the entire Church was virtually unanimous on "young" earth Creationism.
The second way to approach the Bible is called exegesis. Exegesis does not necessarily involve coming to the Bible as a blank slate. This is all but impossible, we all have bias. But it does involve letting the text speak for itself, being willing to change our opinions to fit the text, rather than trying to make the text fit our opinions. Exegesis doesn't require us to do any mental gymnastics, but rather it allows us to take every word in its correct context.
Exegesis follows 5 very simple rules called the rules of hermeneutics:
- The Bible must be interpreted literally (i.e. reading it according to its genre)
- The Bible must be interpreted historically (i.e. with an understanding of its times)
- The Bible must be interpreted grammatically (i.e. using the rules of language)
- The Bible must be interpreted contextually (i.e. with full knowledge of surrounding verses)
- The Bible must be interpreted in light of itself (i.e. with reference to other relevant Scriptures)
As Peter said, there are things in the Bible that are difficult to understand. You can't expect to read the word of the Living God as easily as you might read the complete works of Dr. Seuss. However, there is a definite interpretation, and that definite interpretation can be twisted by what Peter calls "unstable and untaught people". This is not high praise. To those who practice eisegesis, Peter effectively says you're either an idiot or a liar. He also gives a stern warning: You're doing it to your own destruction.
As human beings, we all practice eisegesis from time to time. We haven't been a blank canvas since the day we left our mother's womb. But if we're seriously going to claim to be God's children, we have to at least be willing to let Him wear us down. Correctly reading His word, and putting it into practice, should be our highest priority. Failing that will result in some form of judgement.
*Interpreting the Bible literally is often misunderstood. It doesn't mean the complete absence of any figure of speech, but rather, it means reading it according to the genre it is.