Why Your Theology Mostly Only Matters to You
I reposted Robert's Article because I loved it.
Why Your Theology Mostly Only Matters to You,
I’ve been watching something play out again and again, and if I’m honest, I’ve been part of it too at times. People arguing theology like it’s a competition, like getting it right earns them a higher seat at the table. And I just don’t see Jesus in it.
Somewhere along the way, we started believing the goal was to be correct instead of being present, loving, and awake. We build our frameworks, our doctrines, our interpretations, and then defend them like they are God Himself. But they’re not. They’re our understanding of God, and those are not the same thing.
When I read the life of Jesus, I don’t see Him trying to win theological debates. I see Him walking away from them. When the religious leaders tried to trap Him, He didn’t sit there proving He was right. He responded with a question, a story, or silence. When asked about taxes, He didn’t launch into doctrine. He said, give to Caesar what is Caesar’s. When the woman caught in adultery was brought to Him, He didn’t quote the law to win. He bent down, wrote in the dirt, and said, let the one without sin throw the first stone. When Pilate questioned Him, He barely spoke. Even on the cross, He wasn’t proving a point. He was forgiving people who didn’t understand what they were doing. That doesn’t look like someone trying to be right. That looks like someone who simply is.
Let’s be real. Most of us are not scholars in Hebrew, Greek, or Aramaic. We’re reading translations of translations filtered through culture, denomination, and personal bias, yet we argue as if we sat in the room when it was written. We cling to our version of truth as if it were the final word and look down on anyone who sees it differently. That’s not wisdom. That’s insecurity dressed up as certainty.
If I really sit with it, the need to be right usually comes from something deeper. Control. Fear. Identity. If I’m right, then I’m safe. If I’m right, then I belong. If I’m right, then I matter. So when someone challenges my theology, it doesn’t feel like a discussion; it feels like a threat. That’s when people dig in, argue, and if you don’t agree, they block you, dismiss you, or label you. Not because they’ve found the truth, but because they’re protecting something.
Show me where Jesus said make sure your theology is airtight before you love people. He didn’t. He said love God and love people. No ivory towers. No flexing your interpretation. Just love. What if the goal was never to be right? What if the goal was to be real, present, and transformed? Because the people who are most at peace and most connected to God are not the ones arguing the loudest. They’re the ones who don’t need to.
Re:set Reflection
What if letting go of the need to be right is the very thing that brings you closer to truth?