Doctrine
Doctrine
Good Advice
There is a great line in one of Charles Schulz's Peanuts cartoons. It is raining "cats and dogs" outside the window when Lucy asks the most profound question of the day. "Boy, look at it rain. What if it floods the whole world?" Fully up to the occasion as usual, Linus, the resident theologian, answers that a worldwide flood is impossible since Genesis 9 promises that God will never again flood the earth. Obviously relieved, Lucy sighs, "You've taken a great load off my mind...." Linus's final summation: "sound theology has a way of doing that!"
Profound Theology
The theological student was playing "Stump the Professor." He asked his instructor, a widely recognized scholar and author, to state in a few words his most profound theology.
The academician thought a moment, then replied, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so."
Centuries earlier a similar scene took place in Jerusalem. A theological "hot shot" approached a country preacher with the toughest question of the day: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"
In this case the theologian was playing "Stump the Bumpkin." After all, how could a backwoods itinerant possibly answer the question that the finest religious minds in the country couldn't?
That the preacher answered was a surprise; but what he answered was the real shocker. "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.'This is the first and greatest commandment...."
The answer Jesus gave in Matthew 22:34-40 was not at all unlike the answer of the modern theologian. Just as children in Bible class today learn to sing "Jesus Loves Me" from the earliest age, children in first century Palestine learned to recite "Love the Lord your God" from infancy. In fact, that was what Deuteronomy 6:4-9 was all about-parents teaching their children to give God all the love they have.
The study of theology is fine if it is kept in perspective. But we must never allow our research to obscure God's revelation. The most profound theological truths are these: God loves me and I must love God.
Strength from Depth
The iceberg is steadied because the great mass of its bulk is beneath the surface.
So the life of the strong man must go deep. Underneath the surface lie the great principles that endure-truth and justice and rectitude and the things that make for wholesome life and character.