Why I am Compelled to Correct Your Theology
Motive is crucial, especially for Christians employed by the builder of Christ’s church (Mt 16:18; Eph 2:20–22). Paul wrote that the goal of our (Christian) instruction is love from a pure heart (1 Tim 1:5). Christians do what we do with a motive of love for God and for one another (Mt 22:34–40). Our ambition is to please God (2 Cor 5:9), who disciplines His children in the manner of a good father, who truly cares for his children (Heb 12:6; Rev 3:19). This includes correction (2 Tim 3:16).
It is the Spirit of Christ who has been sent to Christ’s church (Jn 14:26; 15:26). The indwelling Holy Spirit is our Teacher (Jn 14:17, 26), who guides us into all truth (Jn 16:13), as it is in Jesus (Eph 4:21), who is Himself the truth (Jn 14:6). Growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ is the Holy Spirit’s work of sanctification (1 Pet 1:2; 2 Pet 3:18). The Spirit of truth employs the Word of truth to conform God’s chosen people into the image of Christ (Rom 8:29), the icon of God (Jn 17:17; Col 1:15).
The Holy Spirit indwells the preacher and teacher who has studied to show himself approved as a Gospel workman (Rom 8:9, 11; 2 Tim 1:14; 2:15). This man of God meditates on God’s Law — day and night — because He loves the Law of the Lord (Jos 1:8; Ps 1:2; 119:97, 113, 163, 165). God’s anointed preacher is both jealous and zealous for the name, even the reputation of Christ. It is simply unacceptable for sinners to misrepresent or maliciously malign our Master, the Messiah.
God has ordained that His people do theology in community. We need one another because none of us have cornered the market on the knowledge of God, derived from the Scriptures that reveal Him (Jn 5:46; Heb 1:1–2). The same Spirit that gave us the Bible (Eph 6:17; 2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pet 1:20–21) is the One who anoints the preacher/teacher to explicate the text (Acts 10:38; 2 Cor 1:21; Heb 1:9; 1 Jn 2:20, 27).
God has gifted some men (Eph 4:8), appointing them as elders in His church (Acts 20:28), who are apt to teach (1 Tim 3:2; 2 Tim 2:24), in order to declare the excellencies of Him who moves us from darkness to light (1 Pet 2:9). Jesus Christ is the light of the world (Jn 8:12), who has shone in our hearts, by His Spirit, to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Cor 4:6). This is the saint’s light that shines before men (Mt 5:16). More light in the Christian is more of God’s Word in that man’s mind and heart.
Misguided doctrine and practice are the result of biblical ignorance and bad Bible interpretation. Bible knowledge is not Scripture memory recited from Bible drills. Knowledge of the holy and wisdom applied are products of the Spirit’s work. The believer knows what he knows only by the grace of God. He only gets his theology right by the grace of God. In other words, one can recite John 3:16 all day long and still have the wrong interpretation of that verse.
To love God is the produce of God setting His love upon one (and not another!). The one who truly loves God, loves truth because God is true (Rom 3:4) and Jesus Christ is truth revealed to the one chosen by the Father to reveal Him (Mt 11:25; 16:17; Lk 10:21–22). My dear reader, this is the life of God in the soul of a redeemed man or woman. In this: love, light, life, truth, and Christ are synonymous terms. One either has them, or he does not (Rom 8:9).
Receiving Christ, exclusively by the will of God (Jn 1:12–13), is to receive one’s allotted portion of faith (Rom 12:3), gifts (Eph 4:7–8), even grace (1 Pet 1:2). The means God employs to distribute such riches is a mystery. Clay pots, visibly flawed to the naked eye of the natural man, possess this treasure.
Earthen vessels with beautiful feet are sent by God to exact the necessary correction we all need to know the truth, which sets us free from the lies that so easily entangle us (Jn 8:32; Rom 10:15). It is a pride crusher to have someone tell us that some aspect(s) of our theology is wrong. We have all been subject to bad teaching from bad teachers, however. We have all learned false doctrine from the false teacher’s false teaching. In this, we are charged to be Bereans and test what we know to be true about God. Simply put, we need help to do this exercise of proper re-alignment; and we also need to help others if we can…and if they are teachable.
It is my personal desire to be an active participant in this economy of the knowledge of Christ. Stated another way, I eagerly listen, read, and learn. I test what I know and believe via my understanding. In my learning history, I have been taught volumes of bad theology. Of this wrong teaching, I have ignorantly embraced just as much as I immediately and rightly rejected. There is nothing exceptional in my experience.
My dear reader, it behooves you to know that some portion of doctrine you embrace as truth, today, is actually false, even possibly heretical. Do not despair; He who began the good work of teaching you will illumine correction for you, by sending the teacher that reproves your bad theology or practice. Be patient and wait on the Lord to show you the error of your ways. Like a jigsaw puzzle, you must make sure all the pieces are in the proper place. Slowly, the true picture of doctrine and practice will become more recognizable to you.
Pray toward this end — to know Him who is true. Pray for the means of illumination to shine upon you. That illumination just might be the one who was irritating you in Sunday school this week. Remember to pray, listen, learn, test, and relearn what is clearly seen when He alone opens your eyes to see the truth.
Finally, as you work out your salvation by doing theology in community, correct one another and be corrected with a pure heart of love for God and for others…and give thanks because only God can make you believe what is actually true. This is why I am compelled to correct your theology and hope you are compelled in the same way toward me.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
April 2, 2022
