Rugged * Refined

Your Theology Stinks!

Who, in the church, doesn’t like a good theological debate? I for one have entered into, won, and lost several debates surrounding theology. In Bible College, at my father’s home on Sunday afternoons, and in many other situations, I have argued, mostly to no avail, the merits of a particular theological position. The problem is, I can’t think of one time when I really got my point across that it effected any one’s life. No behavior was changed, no paradigms were shifted, and no relationships were strengthened. 

Disclaimer: I think a person should have a clearly defined theology because it shapes your perspective on God, and that needs to be sound. 

But, I believe that entirely too much time is spent debating the nuances of theological positions. This time is stolen from practical pursuits such as evangelism, brotherly love, and the fellowship of the saints. And what’s worse, very few conclusions are drawn at the end of such a debate or conversation. 

I like a good and healthy theological discussion as it helps form opinions, thoughts, and perspectives about God and how He moves. But here are a few areas where I think we, as Christians, need to spend less time worrying about theology and more time worrying about relationships with God and each other… 

1. Theology confuses simple truths

Example: Spiritual Gifts 

Most of the Church has been quite divisive about spiritual gifts. Debates have raged about whether or not they exist, how they should be expressed, and what purpose they have in today’s church. As a result, the church has taken to extremes either denouncing the Gifts of the Spirit entirely (well, certain ones) or over-focusing on spiritual gifts as the end-all, be-all. This has caused us to lose a biblical perspective and has replaced it with man’s perspectives. So the Church has lost its ability and responsibility to be the custodian of such things.

2. Theology creates “classes” in the Church

Simply put, some people are “in the know” and others aren’t. The two main results of this are pride (by those in know) and apathy (by those who feel inferior due to their lack of knowledge). And what’s worse, theological knowledge is often confused with spiritual maturity giving more focus to those who have a wealth of theological knowledge and taking the focus from those whose strengths might lie elsewhere, such as love, compassion, or generosity. These classes take the focus off the big picture of the Body of Christ and narrow it to simply what we know about God. 

3. Theology creates a focus on our intellect instead of our relationship with God

God wants us to know him and to relate to him through his Spirit. It is a gross limitation to our understanding of and relationship to God when we only know him mentally. While mental pursuits and a quest for knowledge can and should help in our relationship with God, we will be blessed by knowing Him through revelation of his Spirit through relationship with Him. 

This means we must leverage knowledge and the wisdom of those before us to help our relationship with God, but we should not rely on our theology to form everything that we know of Him. Theology is only one piece of the puzzle. 

Our theology should be formed by our relationship with God. Our relationship with God should not be formed by our theology.

How has a focus on theology limited your experience with God?

How has it helped?