These days there seems to be many that lay claim to how learning about biblical theology is just high mindedness. That the Christians doing the "real work" don't concern themselves with knowing about theology, instead they practice it. Those that learn about it, talk about it and want to expand their knowledge of who God is according to the Word of God, the bible, are apparently all about the knowledge and not much action.
The problem is of course is that without knowing theology, how can you practice that which you do not know or able to talk about?
The word theology in the biblical sense is the “study of God”. If you are to get to know God more deeply and grow as Christian, don’t you need to know about Him, who He is and what He says?
“Theology in a Christian context seeks to understand the God revealed in the Bible. So, the study of God is a study of God's revelation of Himself. Theology is essentially a study of scripture. Theology comes from combining two Greek words: theos, meaning God, and logos, meaning word or rational thought.” Colorado Christian University
There are many who say that they don’t need theology, they just need to have Jesus. Of course, how do you know you are seeking the “right Jesus” if you have nothing to test it against. How do you know that those that claim to tell you about Jesus, but in the same breath not even encourage you to study God’s Word, are not using that to tell you about a Jesus of their own making?
I often encourage the church to listen carefully to what I say and challenge me on things they think might be in error or misleading – but they can only do this if they are continually in the Bible “studying God”. Otherwise, anyone who might disagree with what I believe is the interpretation of specific scripture, might simply have a version of Jesus in their mind that I am offending.
Let me be clear, anyone can come to Jesus and put their faith in Him as their Lord and saviour. That is through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, by God’s grace. But the disciples, even though they followed Jesus, they still needed convincing of his purpose to die on the cross right up to the last day before He was crucified. (Matt 14:22, Matthew 16:21-23)I get it, if I was with Jesus, I wouldn’t want Him to go either. But that would be what I want from Jesus, my version of Jesus.
In the same way, our convincer and conviction is the Word of God through the Holy Spirit. We don’t have Jesus on earth now, but the Word of God and the Holy Spirit is as sufficient for us to know who this wonderful God is. And that is the point. You might believe what Jesus has said, but do you believe IN Him. There is a big difference.
Paul in writing to Timothy says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” - 2 Timothy 3:16
Theology - the study of God – is not some high-minded thing to be ridiculed. Without the study of God, the Christian is not trained in righteousness.
If you are not getting to know God through the bible, how will you be able to avoid being “tossed back and forth..by every wind of teaching” (Ephesians 4:11-15) if you don’t know who your anchor is in the “wind and waves” what will you secure yourself to when hear things about God that are not true. How will you test any teaching, just like we test each spirit, if you don’t know the God of the Bible.
Don’t believe those that guilt you into not studying the bible by putting forward their own accolades of works, especially when you feel you don’t do as much as them or have been through as much as they have.
Don’t get me wrong, it is important that we live out that which we believe in. Our faith in Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit is the means by which our works mean anything (James 2:14-26). But you cannot have one without the other, they are both to be desired. We don’t work to earn our salvation, the works of faith are from the joy of knowing God, and so you do them because it is for Him and not for yourself (Ephesians 2:8).
But all our works are for nothing if we do not know the God we claim to serve. The only way we can do that is to get to know who is through His Holy Word.
Colin Barnard
Pastor
The Vine Christian Community Church