Moving Past Theological Labels

There are a vast number of theological labels given to types of theology.  Often the church would do best to move past the labels.

The number of groups who will not dialogue because of theological labels is often pronounced.  We often would do better to simply listen.

What does a person say and is what the person says according to the word and will of God?  If a person speaks the gospel truthfully and lives out there life faithfully to God the person is someone to listen to even if we might feel tentative about how they are labeled theologically.

Because two people share similar theological traits does not mean both are teaching and walking in accord with the will of God.

Often it is not what a theologian says which is worrisome, but what the do not say, or will not say, or do not have the courage to say.  We should listen to what thinkers say and not what is said about them.

Most people simply repeat second hand the views of various thinkers.  We might ask them where they got the view and the would say "everyone know it is this way."

Maybe it is and maybe it is not.  At times so many people have repeated the same erroneous viewpoint that the number of people who know the truth is greatly outnumbered by the number who believe errors.

We need to listen to what thinkers say.  Not what the press says about them.  Not what their fans say or dissenters say.

We need to listen, think, and judge rightly according to the word of God.

The Importance of How

We live in a world that evaluates results and does not like to ask questions of how people got where they got.  Often in life we are presented with choices of how to get places.

Sometimes success requires sacrifices of one sort or another.  In life how we get to where we get is always more important in God's eyes than where we get.

Sometimes in faith we can fail to reach an accomplishment because we weigh the cost of the accomplishment rightly.  It is often the case than many successful careers have destroyed families and marriages.

Often we need to look at life in total and not isolation.  Being available 24/7 while it might be good for a career might not be good for a family.  Often we have to find contentment in what we have.

The feeling that the grass is always greener on the other side is often illusory.  Sometimes the grass is greener, but often life is a complex series of trade offs.

Seeking success too strongly in one sphere of life may destroy all other spheres.  The bible always reminds us to judge rightly and not by the worlds standards.

How we get to where we get and the cost it takes to get there are not unimportant in God's eyes. Always we need to judge true success by God's standards and not mans.

Love for Others

Loving others includes caring about what they care about. We need not care about what others care about in the same way they care about things but we should care.

We often see divisions in people for the most strange reasons. You see divisions because people refuse to respect others' hobbies, others' preference in style, others' views on sports or views and interests on many things with no moral aspects.

Interests many times are simply preferences. In many contexts preferences are non-moral in nature. It is human nature to frequently place moral aspects on things which have no moral value.

In the ideal sense what interests others should interest ourselves. Obviously this is very difficult. There is a great diversity of human interest.

Specifically we should at minimum not put down or disrespect what others like. You will see very frequently people dismiss things which they do not care about as boring or stupid.

This is of great disrespect to people. You see fellowship is very difficult when people act as if others are odd for what they like.

You see many people enjoy things which we find quite dull. But it is respect to not view them as odd or unusual for those interests.

It is the nature of the sinful nature of the human heart to judge for the wrong reasons. It is very strange the things people judge others for.

God calls us to judge rightly. And to see things as he does. You see Jesus judge people very differently than the world.

Many people viewed as beyond hope Jesus saw hope in. Many people judged as righteous Jesus saw as mired in sin.

You see righteousness is a response to Jesus as the son of God who entered the world to defeat sin. We need to learn to view the world though faith and see things as God sees them.