Reading With Gospel Eyes: Record? Or Advocate?

There is a simple question that  each person reading the Bible needs to answer in order to better understand the message:  Does this passage record an event, practice or principle?  Or does it actually advocate it?  Discerning that difference quickly clears much of the confusion that I hear people struggle with.

The point is that the writers of the Bible often faithfully record things that they do not intend to advocate, especially as timeless, universal principles or behaviors.