Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

Must Love Always Trump Inerrancy?

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Most burning theological issues are neither burning, nor theological, Brennan Manning. 

When John Piper resigns because his son was unbelieving,

When leading churches lose all their assets to leave denominations too liberal on gays

When theological colleges lose their faculty over the issue of women teaching men,

And dissentient clergy need their own flying Bishops,

Let us remember that inerrancy is not as important as love.

 

Christ never commanded us to believe in the inerrancy of Scripture.

He did command us to love.

 

When theology births self-righteousness,

And we judge those more liberal then ourselves,

And we judge those more conservative than ourselves,

And we judge those more Words-Visions-Tongues-Prophecy than ourselves,

And we judge those less spirit-propelled than ourselves,

And we get so intense about our ideas that we forget the One we are following

Help us remember,

It’s not about theology.

 

There will be no theology exam when we meet you,

You will not ask if we have got our beliefs right,

You will—you have told us—welcome us if we have loved

And believed.

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  1. Thanks Gillan (God and Politics)

    Thanks so much for your comment. You put it so well.

    “Treating others with grace is so important. If they are trying to find the right answers too but come to differing conclusions then I need to accept that.” Exactly!!

    “So much pain and hurt is caused when people think their interpretation of scripture is superior to anyone else's. It breaks my heart when Christians argue over these things and animosity ensues where there should be unity.” Indeed.

    The egalitarian/complementarian debate is another issue which can be very painful for women (esp. clergy) while obscuring our central missions to love God, and each other, even those who interpret Scripture differently.

  2. Anita you have put this so well and so powerfully.

    Love is indeed what holds everything else together. We do need to remember that God wants us to know Him beyond the superficial and He wants us to immerse ourselves in His word.

    I don't want to be naive and constantly am wrestling with how I understand the Bible and how it should inform the way that I live. I want to understand God as much as possible, but I also know that there is so much that I will never understand fully. I need to be honest when I find others I disagree with and though I hope and pray that I do have the right answers I also need to acknowledge that I might have some things wrong. Treating others with grace is so important. If they are trying to find the right answers too but come to differing conclusions then I need to accept that.

    We need to be honest with each other, not dogmatic and forgiving. As you so clearly put it, theology isn't going to get us into Heaven.

    So much pain and hurt is caused when people think their interpretation of scripture is superior to anyone else's. It breaks my heart when Christians argue over these things and animosity ensues where there should be unity.

    Anita, your stark reminder is so pertinent at this time. I pray more of us, especially those in leadership will take this on board and work to get a better perspective on these things.

  3. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…”

    I think in wanting to love as humans, we can easily forget that Christ's commission to love *comes* from his character and identity as son of God – God who authored and is Himself, love. If God is love, then His identity – as holy, inerrant and perfect – dictates what love looks like. Just as He loves but doesn't not condone, so must we. It's not up to us to parse the necessary elements of faith, but to walk by the Word He gave us. Why then try to build a hierarchy of our own? It's one thing for the world that despises authority to call us self-righteous for accepting His standard, but to say it among ourselves at fellow believers? That seems like a trap all its own.

  5. Anita – I so agree with you – somewhere else I've commented that 'love covers over a multitude of dogma' (to misquote Peter). Brilliantly put. Jesus taught that to love God and our neighbour as ourselves is the whole of the law and prophets.

  6. Thanks much, DJV.

    Anonymous, come on, sign your name. I won't bite, even if you are my best friend, IRL.

    The issues I mentioned are not central to faith–which is believing in Jesus (John 3:16), doing what he tells us, loving God and loving our neighbour.

    I am not saying we ourselves need to become gay, or a woman bishop–just that we need to give Christian gays, Christian women clergy and women bishops latitude to interpret scripture according to their own consciences, just as we interpret it according to our own conscience, judgement and intelligence.

    Disputes about theology are often a waste of time, because in the end, we will be judged on “faith, working through love,” not our theological IQ.

    Of course, I could be wrong:-)

  7. Is it loving to allow people to run head long to perdition without saying something? This too is at issue in many of the debates raging in society today if indeed the scriptures are divinely inspired and good for instruction.