Bible: Oppressive of Freeing?

the Bible was written under the thumb of Empire - whether that was Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar or Pilate or Caesar. The Bible is certainly familiar with the themes of Empire - corruption, control, and coercion. And yet, is the Bible sometimes used for those ends as well? Two enormously significant African leaders look at it differently:

When the Missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land and the Missionaries had the Bible. They taught how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible. - Jomo Kenyatta, the Kenyan leader who led his country out of British rule to become it’s own nation

There's nothing more radical, nothing more revolutionary, nothing more subversive against injustice and oppression than the Bible. If you want to keep people subjugated, the last thing you place in their hands is a Bible. - Desmond Tutu, one of the key leaders in dismantling Apartheid

After all, when Jesus was being tempted by the Devil, both of them quoted the Bible to justify their (very different) approaches. So how do we use the Bible appropriately, wisely, and well?

One of the key factors seems to be what lenses we use to view the Bible. In a passage where the Apostle Paul is wrestling with how to figure out what to do with parts of the Bible that don’t seem to exactly fit, the Spirit inspired him to write these words:

The only thing that matters is faith expressing itself through love (Galatians 5:6).

What if we always looked through the lens of love when we looked at the Bible? How might that change how we view it and how we use it? What impact might that have on you and your approach to the Bible?