Run for Your Life!
If anyone tells you that acting like Jesus is more important than your theology, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!
First, God’s not looking for actors. And second, this is an absurd impossibility.
“Theology” is by definition the study of the nature of God. It is not possible to become like Jesus if you do not know His nature and His ways. How could you apply something to your life that you have not learned nor believed? That is the equivalent of saying it is more important to cook like Julia Child than to read her cookbooks or know her recipes!
People can say whatever they like, but they will always ACT on what they truly believe. So, what you believe about Jesus will determine how you act. From where will you gain your beliefs about God if not from His own word? The Bible makes us able to get it straight from the horses’ mouth!
So what are they REALLY saying by minimizing the importance of right theology? Well, it’s a works-based form of legalism. And what they are telling you when they place behavior in a higher priority than understanding God’s nature, is that you do not have to read God’s Word, understand it, nor believe it. You can create a god of your own choosing and Jesus becomes whatever you want him to be. Interestingly, this god will always end up looking a LOT like you. And you will go through life ignorantly blissful with the high approval of yourself.
But John 1:1 says In the beginning was the WORD. The WORD was with God and the WORD WAS GOD in the beginning.
Dropping down to verse 14, it says that WORD became flesh and dwelt among us. -Jesus.
It is impossible (I will say again, impossible) to separate the Word of God from God himself. To say you can put aside the study of God (theology) and somehow come to an understanding of God, then live and act like Him, is a complete oxymoron. It is irrational. And a trick used by those who want to put forth their own perception of the god they want you to adopt.
“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15
Because the Word of God is like an unleashed tiger, it alone transforms the minds and hearts of men.
Believing God’s Word IS what changes you from the inside out. Like taking in good food, you don’t have to make the nutrients do for you what you want. The nutrients will do the work. You just have to be willing to take it in.