Better Together
Some things just belong together, don’t they?
Peanut Butter & Jelly
Campfires & Ghost Stories
Movies & Popcorn
According to the Bible, we could add desire & knowledge to that list. Proverbs 19:2 says, “Desire without knowledge is not good.”
What good is it to want to do something if you don’t know how? You might want to fly an airplane, but if you’ve never taken flying lessons, you’re not likely to get very far. You may want to play the guitar, but if you don’t learn any chords, nobody will want to listen.
Desire alone is not sufficient because even if you’re willing, you aren’t necessarily able. The same principle applies to our relationship with God and our ability to serve Him. We may be zealous in our desire to honor the Lord, but if we don’t pair that zeal with knowledge of who He is and what He has revealed in His Word, we won’t be very effective in our efforts. In fact, we could actually be heading in the wrong direction without even realizing it.
In Romans 10:2, Paul talks about how the his fellow Jews had a “zeal” for God, but “not according to knowledge.” They wanted to know and honor God, but they didn’t understand the truth about Jesus’ identity as the Messiah. So their zeal didn’t get them any closer to God because it wasn’t based on a proper knowledge of God’s plan and provision.
There are many people today who downplay doctrine and issues of theology. They say things like, “I just love God and love people. I don’t care about all those theological debates.” Such statements may seem to reflect a passionate, active faith, but they often mask a shallow faith that doesn’t take God’s Word very seriously.
It’s obviously wonderful to love God, but if you don’t know what God is like, how do you know your loving the one, true God? How do you know that you aren’t loving some fake god that you have crafted for yourself? In order to know who God is and what He is really like, we need theology.
The same is true of our desire to serve Him. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (Jn. 14:15). So, how will you love or serve Jesus if you don’t know what He’s said in His Word? We cannot love or serve Jesus as we should without studying the Scriptures.
Remember as well that Jesus said we are to love God with all of our minds (Matt. 22:37). We tend to think of love only as a matter of the heart, but Jesus says it involves our minds too. How can we really say that we love God as we should if our minds aren’t engaged in the effort?
Theology is a good and necessary part of our discipleship. It’s true that theology can be done in an unhealthy, even ungodly, way. Some people love to argue, and some debates create more heat than light. But that doesn’t mean that we should abandon the discipline altogether. We should seek to learn and grow in our knowledge of God, and we should do so in a way that honors Him and others. Only when our desire for Him is paired with a true knowledge of Him will we truly honor the Lord as we should.
To explore resources to help you grow in your understanding of theology, check out the various books we have for sale in our online bookstore.