What we believe about God affects how we practically live our lives and even how we worship Him. Sadly, too many Christians naively think that they don’t need theology or to be better informed about who God really is. They think, more or less, that all that is needed in the Christian life is to believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
While that may be the right recipe for salvation, that falls canonically short of living a sanctified life or living our best life possible, which is Christ’s goal for our lives (see Jn 10:10).
We were created to know God, which aids in our understanding of our identity and destiny in Christ, to enjoy God, which aids in our enjoyment of life, and to glorify God, which aids in reflecting His glory to others, which is similar to Moses’s interaction with the Israelites after his encounter with God on Mt. Sinai (see Ex 34:29-35). But, sadly, all that is curtailed the moment we tell ourselves that we don’t need to grow in our knowledge of God.
Remember the words of the prophet Hosea to God’s people: “Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a case against the people of the land: ‘There is no truth, no loving devotion, and no knowledge of God in the land!’ ” (Hos 4:1, BSB) Later, God reproaches them by saying, ” ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge’ ” (v.6).
Theology matters.
We are commanded to love the LORD God with all our heart, soul, and mind (Mt 22:37). That is, we are supposed to love our God with every faculty of our being, including our mental faculty. Thus, we properly honor God when we engage our minds in better understanding Him with our theology.
The question then is not whether we should study theology, but whether we are obedient Christians and thus good theologians. After all, everybody believes something about God.
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