The devil is a better theologian than any of us and is a devil still. ~A.W. Tozer
Theology is my life-long love. I read it, debate it, study it. I sometimes defend my version of it with a passion that surprises me. Here’s the problem. Theology is not so much the study of God, but the study of what others believe about God.
Which is appropriate. We don’t reinvent the wheel with each generation. Our faith stands on the wisdom of the past.
But if the truth we are defending is the truth we have been told, a reflection of the bubble surrounding our thought life, how can we know it is truth?
Power struggles waged on websites and from pulpits distract and wound the church. Gate keepers and destroyers of tradition alike form a death grip on ideas and verbally stone any nuanced discussion in between. Hostility is passed down the pews behind the offering plate, and the message is clear: whatever you do, don’t believe and act as they do, or you will be next.
Engage in the battle or drift with indifference? I have sampled the futility of both. There is a better way.
Live what you know
- Stop nibbling and start devouring. Open your Bible and eat the entire meal. Read it, not just a few proof-texts, not just the chapters that confirm your own bias, but the whole story–looking for God’s overall plan, his heart, motives and desires.
- With humility and an open mind, and the sincere intention to allow the Spirit of Jesus Christ to penetrate your defenses, invite him to shake and reshape your assumptions.
- Then tangibly live out the heart, motives and desires of God in the world he told us he loves.
This is true theology, this is true religion, this is what changes the world.
How have your assumptions about God been shaken lately?
9 replies on “True Theology: Live What You Know”
Thank you, Janet. I come from a religious background that is heavy on dogma. Years ago God brought me to Micah 6:8 (He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.) and more recently to James 1:27 (Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.) He also challenged me to read the Bible from beginning to end so that I could read for myself what it said. It was a life-changing experience and I’m doing it again this year.
Life-changing, and life-challenging. Yes!
Our pastor has been repeating a line that echos your last point: “You haven’t learned truth until you put it into practice in your life.”
So true, Ed.
For me, my greatest loneliness was to be among “wise” theologians and yet find little there that nourished my soul that was starving.
II Cor. 2.14 Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ,( a MUCH slower but LIFE GIVING WAY than having others process our food) and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. (It is not we who diffuse it) 15 For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things? 17 For we are not, as so many,[b] peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.
Great verses to remember, “we speak in the sight of God in Christ.” Thanks, Mary
Janet, I think you’re already aware that we share views on these matters. I took a master’s in spirituality, not theology, because I believe it to be theology fully alive; the “theos logos” or word of God in me not my meager thoughts about a God I am somehow seeking to control or master.
But, alas, we are not the first, nor will we be the last to enter this fray!
Oh, but how our hearts will wander without the discipline of wrestled truth. A double major?
Ha! Indeed. Sister, methinks thou dost speak truth in love, the end of all our theology.