Is there really any question that within the evangelical church there are churches where substantive study and teaching are foreign things and others where such are front and center to the mission of the church? Theological weightiness is likely a bigger divide than any particular theological issues. Those on the brainier side of this divide think the solution is for their brothers and sisters to repent of their disinterest in theological study. Those on the heart-ier side of the divide feel the solution is for their brothers and sisters to repent of their pride in their theological study. I would like to suggest that both sides are right.
The truth is that the study of theology is destructive when it is an end in itself and its absence is destructive whatever end we might have. The first bit of theology we all must learn is that to love Him is to know Him. If we are learning more and not loving more we are doing it wrong. It we aren’t learning more, we are not loving Him more, and are doing it wrong. What gets in our way, among both groups, is the same problem, pride. With the more scholastic folk that pride is pretty obvious. They are proud of all that they know, especially of how much more they know than others. When our study of the things of God leads us to greater pride, we can be sure the devil is in the mix somewhere.
With the less scholastic folk, however, there is also pride- pride in their purported capacity to love God purely, powerfully, passionately, all without going to the trouble of studying Him more fully. Imagine if a husband is so busy talking about how much he loves his wife that he doesn’t take the time to listen to her, to study her ways, to grow in his capacity to understand her. That’s almost as foolish as studying theology and coming out the other side with more pride than you went in with.
Pride, however, is not through with its destructive work yet. For the more scholastic, pride also leads us to refuse to acknowledge that we’re doing it wrong. When we suffer from theological constipation, filling our heads with more and more knowledge that gets clogged up before it reaches our heart, instead of reaching for the plunger, we simply fill our heads more. For the less scholastic, pride works in the same way, leading us to refuse to acknowledge that we’re doing it wrong. We just keep looking for something newer, louder, more emotional that won’t require us to make the effort to actually study the things of God. We show ourselves full of it when think ourselves better than those dry and dusty theology wonks whom we know must be full of themselves.
To know Him is life itself. He is the font of wisdom, love, knowledge, glory, power, beauty, wonder. He makes Himself known to us that we might better magnify His name. Let’s come together in worship.