We are all responsible before God to know these things truly and rightly, to align our knowledge with the source of truth God has given us in his Word. We are all responsible to deepen and sharpen this knowledge, to gain greater knowledge and to ensure it becomes more accurate over time.

For years now, I have made it my goal to release something every day that will encourage people, or challenge them, or instruct them, or otherwise bring them some kind of spiritual benefit. Not surprisingly, I receive all sorts of feedback, and there are a couple of kinds that, more than any other, discourage and dismay me. It’s when people who have been Christians for a long time reveal that they have only the smallest amount of theological knowledge or, even worse, reveal their belief that theological knowledge is an unnecessary or even evil thing. This is sadly common and always tragic.

Ignorance is the expectation, of course, when it comes to new believers—we all begin with knowledge that is minuscule and faulty. But ignorance is a great concern when people have professed faith for many years or been in church for many decades, yet have never advanced beyond the basics. In many cases, people have simply never been told that there is such a category as “theology.” Perhaps they’ve only ever been told that “Christianity is not a religion but a relationship.” And while it’s true and precious that we get to have a relationship with God, the Christian faith is also a substantial, established, orderly, cohesive body of truth. Perhaps they’ve only ever been told that theology is dangerous, that “doctrine divides.” Or maybe they’ve been told or taught that theology is boring, the purposeless or even prideful pursuit of knowledge that compels us to body slam others with facts. Admittedly a lot of people abuse theology in that way, but theology is far more and far better than that.

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