If you were to ask most Christians what book of the Bible they should turn to, to get some deep theology, you might hear responses like, Romans, Hebrews or for those totally obsessed with eschatology (end times) Revelation. And, I think that this is the problem with our theology today. We are so concerned with "theology" we have forgotten what "Christianity" is all about. We are so concerned with the proper interpretation of this or that Greek word, the actual historical context, or the author's original intent (all things which are important) that we have overlooked the most important thing. Jesus. Don't get me wrong it is important to know how to read and interpret the Bible but we should not do it at the cost of neglecting Jesus. As Anne Graham Lots would say "just give me Jesus." I would give up all of the years theological studies I have done to be able to spend time discussing theology with Jesus for a couple of hours. Christianity is about following Jesus, isn't it? If it is shouldn't our best books of the Bible to learn theology be the gospels?
I think that one of the great problems with Christianity today is that we have left Jesus for "theology" and for "biblical study" for that matter. I never hear people in accountability groups asking "who did you love today?" Yet they always seem to be asking "how many times have you read your Bible this week?" The result of this "theology and biblically" based Christianity as opposed to Jesus (Christ) based Christianity, is a Christianity which "knows" but does not "do." I believe that if we as Christians paid more attention to Jesus and learned from him and looked at the rest of the Bible through Jesus colored glasses we would enter into a Christianity similar to that of the first century. A Christianity which was world changing, a Christianity which "did" more than it discussed.
2 comments:
You are on to it my friend ! .I heard from somebody who went to a last public meeting by a bloke called John Stott whos message was about what you have said.
Evidently a Islamic priest said if it was to be most muslims would be likely to convert to christianity or atleast be able to find some common ground .
Sadly while christianity is so stuck on theology and so called christian leaders are involved in war .Not a lot of peace will happen .
Gandolf, your points about conversions and war are right on. If Christians lived as if we have been spending time with Jesus recently we could see great changes in our culture as did those in the first century who began the Christian revolution.
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