Everyone loves a good story and, as a writer, I use them to help my readers understand the points I’m trying to make.

Jesus, too, used parables to illustrate the main points he was making and he did it so successfully, these stories are well-known today, even by people who are not biblically literate. The Good Samaritan is such an example.

Because parables are such an effective tool in studying biblical truths, they are used often in Bible studies, classes and even personal devotions. There is an important point, however, that needs to be considered in order to handle God’s word with integrity. This point is, biblical parables have one function and that is to convey one main point.

When Jesus used parables, he was not teaching doctrine or theology. For example, in the parable of The Good Samaritan, Jesus was not teaching of the spiritual failures of priests and Levites in his day nor any spiritual leaders we have now. He was not teaching about how much money we should spend in helping others as the Samaritan did in the story. Instead, Jesus told the parable of The Good Samaritan in answer to the question an “Expert in the (Jewish) law” asked which was, “Who is my neighbor?” and in context, he’s asking, “If I’m supposed to love God with all my being and love my neighbor as myself, who does ‘neighbor’ include?”

Handling the Bible with integrity means where parables appear, you must look for the one main lesson or point the teacher is making. Looking into these pieces of literature for doctrine and/or theology is not a correct use of parables.