“We’re educated way beyond the level of our obedience,” said the conference speaker.
“Jesus didn’t just command us to teach,” said another. “He commanded us to teach others to obey.”
The implication: we don’t need more doctrine or information. We need more obedience. Less theology; more obedience!
Whenever I hear this kind of thing — and I’ve heard it a lot — it always seems to meet with murmurs of approval in the audience.
Nobody can argue that we need more obedience within the church. But is doctrine really the enemy of obedience? The author of Hebrews didn’t think so.
In Hebrews 5, the author begins to challenge the recipients about their lack of doctrinal maturity. One of the reasons they weren’t doing well spiritually was doctrinal: they hadn’t grown in understanding even basic doctrines.
“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God,” he writes in Hebrews 5:12-14. “You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”
Their failure to cling to Christ in the face of persecution could be traced back to a lack of response to theological education. A dullness toward doctrine leads to a weakness in obedience.
The author continues by challenging the readers to “leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity” (Hebrews 6:1). He then lists three pairs of foundational doctrines they would have understood. He calls them to not settle for the basics, but to move beyond them.
In every church, we should expect Christians at every level of maturity. But the normal progression is that Christians grow in maturity. We should expect a normal growth process in which we move on from elementary doctrines to more advanced ones. This progression doesn’t just produce big heads; it helps us grow in our obedience.
A Christian who remains stuck with an elementary understanding of doctrine is a Christian who is in danger of abandoning Christ.
A Christian who remains stuck with an elementary understanding of doctrine is a Christian who is in danger of abandoning Christ.
We can get away without a grasp of doctrine for a while, but not for long. “Life itself has a way of forcing us to deal with theology — that is, what we believe — sooner or later,” observes George Guthrie. “The difficult experiences of life raise important questions about God and what he is up to. We especially must be focused in the deeper matters of the faith if we are to withstand the fire of persecution. Those who are shallow theologically manifest that superficiality in the face of strong challenges that oppose continued commitment to Christ.”
Not every Christian will need an advanced theological degree. But every Christian should refuse to settle for just the basics. We should expect to grow in our understanding of doctrine.
Whenever we hear someone argue that we don’t need more doctrine, we should worry. We don’t need less theology; we need more theology coupled with obedience, because doctrine and obedience are friends. A lack of doctrinal progression leads to serious problems in staying faithful to Christ.
So don’t lower the theological bar. Raise it. Refuse to settle for the basics. Continue to grow. Never pit doctrine against obedience, because they’re friends. In fact, you can’t really have one without the other.