You Cannot Serve Both God and Theology
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You Cannot Serve Both God and Theology
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You Cannot Serve Both God and Theology
By Marshall Segal
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What’s more dangerous to the human soul—money or theology?
Money is the easy answer. Paul warns us, “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. It is through
this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs”
(1 Timothy 6:10). Treasure money, and what it can buy, more than God, and it will rob you of him and
buy you terrifying, unending pain, apart from him.
Jesus himself says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other,
or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew
6:24; see also Hebrews 13:5). The God of Christianity and the god of money are irreconcilably
opposed. They cannot room together in the human heart. If you find yourself serving money—
consuming yourself with earning, gathering and spending—by definition you are not serving God.
But is money more spiritually dangerous than theology? The answer may be trickier than we think,
especially within the numbing comfort of a proudly affluent and educated American Church. Money is a
tangible, countable, often visible god. Theology, on the other hand—if it is cut off from truly knowing
1 din 6
2/25/2015 9:31 AM
You Cannot Serve Both God and Theology
http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/247944-cannot-serve-god-theology.html?print
and enjoying God himself—can be a soothing, subtle, superficially spiritual god. Both are deadly, but
one lulls us into a proud, intellectual, and purely cosmetic confidence and rest before God. Theology
will kill you if it does not kindle a deep and abiding love for the God of the Bible and if it does not
inspire a desire for his glory, and not ultimately our own.
Good Theology Is the Only Path to God
Now, I love theology, and you should, too. Paul’s one aim in life and ministry was to know Christ and
him crucified (i.e., to know Christian theology), and he wanted to know God in Christ as truly and
thoroughly as possible, with all of its implications for everything he thinks and says and does (1
Corinthians 2:2). You cannot read this man’s letters and not come to the conclusion that theology was
his heartbeat. He lived to know as much about this unsearchable God as possible, and he was ready to
die for those truths.
Psalm 119 is a passionate love letter written to the revelation of God in his word. What we know about
God from the Bible is unbelievably, inexhaustibly profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, training in
righteousness and life (2 Timothy 3:16; John 6:68).
Without theology, you will not know God—literally and spiritually. So, this article is not meant to be a
prohibition against theology—God forbid—but a caution and a warning about theology. Knowledge
about God can replace an authentic knowing of him to our destruction, especially for the theologically
refined and convinced. We all should want our theology to be not only true, but Spirit-filled and
fruitful.
The Best Readers Can Be the Worst Listeners
2 din 6
2/25/2015 9:31 AM
You Cannot Serve Both God and Theology
http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/247944-cannot-serve-god-theology.html?print
The Pharisees fought Jesus at every turn. They doubted and even hated much of what he said and did,
and tried again and again to trap him in a lie or inconsistency. They had read God’s word over and
over again. They knew this book really well—or so it seemed—and yet they did not know the Word
living, breathing and speaking in front of them—the Word through whom all things were made and
without whom nothing was made that was made (John 1:3), the Word who became flesh and walked
the earth (John 1:14), the Word who is the perfect picture of God and who upholds the universe with
the words of his mouth (Hebrews 1:3).
Mark recounts one of these confrontations between Jesus and the so-called spiritual experts of his day.
“The Pharisees and the scribes asked [Jesus], ‘Why do your disciples not walk according to the
tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’” (Mark 7:5). We know this was not Pharisaical
humility and genuine curiosity (Matthew 12:14; 22:15). This was defiance—an attempt to undermine
and shame the Son of God.
They were so confident in their theology that they confronted the Christ himself. They tried to pin him
down under the feather-weight and wading-pool-depth of their theology—the One who was the
fulfillment and pinnacle of all the pages they had read. They challenged God’s own understanding of
God. Their education and pride—their knowledge and confidence in their own system—had blinded
them to the very image and voice of God. They knew so much about God, and yet knew him so little.
Even the Literate Need to Learn to Read
Jesus responds to their ignorant and murderous criticism with the very Scriptures they seem to know
so well. “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their
lips, but their heart is far from me’” (Mark 7:6–7). Hypocrisy, according to Jesus, disconnects
knowledge of God from true love for God. Hypocrisy is not just about disobedience to the Bible—the
3 din 6
2/25/2015 9:31 AM
You Cannot Serve Both God and Theology
http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/247944-cannot-serve-god-theology.html?print
Pharisees would have been thought of as clearly “obedient”—but about disillusionment with the God of
the Bible. You can know him and not know him. And that might be the most dangerous place in all the
world—however comfortable, safe and informed it may feel.
Jesus goes on to say, “You leave the commandment of God”—an awful, terrifying condemnation—“and
hold to the tradition of men” (Mark 7:8). You have traded the truth about God for images of the truth,
manufactured by your own mind. You’ve loved what you’ve learned about God more than God himself.
You’ve trusted your knowledge and obedience more than the mouth of God. “For the sake of your
tradition, you have made void the word of God” (Matthew 15:6).
You Can Tithe Theology, Too
So we should fear money when it leads our hearts and allegiances away from God. And we should fear
our system of theology when it more subtly does the same. In our good disciplines of learning about
God—reading, asking, listening, writing—we must take care to develop habits of treasuring and
worshiping him, too. Be committed to having a right theology, but be as committed to having a
relational theology—a growing, humble and heartfelt intimacy with God. Do not simply search the
Scriptures for soteriology, but search for salvation—the eternal life—that is only found in the flesh,
blood and person of Jesus Christ (John 5:39).
Tithe your theology. Just like all money is God’s, all good theology is God’s, too—it’s all about him, all
from him and all for him. Still, we give 10 percent or more of our money to declare week after week
our gratitude, faith and joy in God, even to say that it is all his. Likewise, we need rhythms of
responding to God in worship when we learn more about him. Look for every opportunity to offer what
you’ve seen about God back to him in prayer and worship.
4 din 6
2/25/2015 9:31 AM
You Cannot Serve Both God and Theology
http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/247944-cannot-serve-god-theology.html?print
Stop, and pray God’s words about God back to him. Journal as a way of stimulating your heart over
the things your mind is beginning to understand. Put the truths you’re learning on your lips for others
to hear and love—share them with someone. The psalmist responded this way to knowing God and his
love more deeply in Psalm 63: “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.
… My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips”
(Psalm 63:3, 5).
We will never be truly satisfied by knowing about God. We need to know him. If that dichotomy
doesn’t make sense to you, beware. Facts about God without feelings for him and fellowship with
him—without a sense that you are God’s chosen, redeemed and known son or daughter—will give you
a false sense of God’s love and security. But facts about God can also draw you closer to him.
You cannot serve both God and theology, but you can serve and love and treasure God with good
theology.
“We need our theology to be not only true, but Spirit-filled and fruitful.”
Like
1.2k
23
Print Version
Marshall Segal (@MarshallSegal) is executive assistant to John Piper, a recent graduate of Bethlehem
Seminary in Minneapolis, and author of Single, Satisfied, and Sent: Mission for the Not-Yet Married.
More from Marshall Segal or visit Marshall at http://twitter.com/marshallsegal
Please Note: We reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, uncivil and
off-topic. Read a detailed description of our Comments Policy.
5 din 6
2/25/2015 9:31 AM
You Cannot Serve Both God and Theology
http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/247944-cannot-serve-god-theology.html?print
Copyright © 2014 ChurchLeaders.com Privacy Terms of Use Advertise About Us Newsletter Signup
Contact Us We're Hiring feedback
6 din 6
2/25/2015 9:31 AM
http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/247944-cannot-serve-god-theology.html?print
HomePastorsArticles for Pastors
You Cannot Serve Both God and Theology
By Marshall Segal
Provided by
Email Share On Facebook Twitter
Like Us
Like
What’s more dangerous to the human soul—money or theology?
Money is the easy answer. Paul warns us, “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. It is through
this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs”
(1 Timothy 6:10). Treasure money, and what it can buy, more than God, and it will rob you of him and
buy you terrifying, unending pain, apart from him.
Jesus himself says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other,
or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew
6:24; see also Hebrews 13:5). The God of Christianity and the god of money are irreconcilably
opposed. They cannot room together in the human heart. If you find yourself serving money—
consuming yourself with earning, gathering and spending—by definition you are not serving God.
But is money more spiritually dangerous than theology? The answer may be trickier than we think,
especially within the numbing comfort of a proudly affluent and educated American Church. Money is a
tangible, countable, often visible god. Theology, on the other hand—if it is cut off from truly knowing
1 din 6
2/25/2015 9:31 AM
You Cannot Serve Both God and Theology
http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/247944-cannot-serve-god-theology.html?print
and enjoying God himself—can be a soothing, subtle, superficially spiritual god. Both are deadly, but
one lulls us into a proud, intellectual, and purely cosmetic confidence and rest before God. Theology
will kill you if it does not kindle a deep and abiding love for the God of the Bible and if it does not
inspire a desire for his glory, and not ultimately our own.
Good Theology Is the Only Path to God
Now, I love theology, and you should, too. Paul’s one aim in life and ministry was to know Christ and
him crucified (i.e., to know Christian theology), and he wanted to know God in Christ as truly and
thoroughly as possible, with all of its implications for everything he thinks and says and does (1
Corinthians 2:2). You cannot read this man’s letters and not come to the conclusion that theology was
his heartbeat. He lived to know as much about this unsearchable God as possible, and he was ready to
die for those truths.
Psalm 119 is a passionate love letter written to the revelation of God in his word. What we know about
God from the Bible is unbelievably, inexhaustibly profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, training in
righteousness and life (2 Timothy 3:16; John 6:68).
Without theology, you will not know God—literally and spiritually. So, this article is not meant to be a
prohibition against theology—God forbid—but a caution and a warning about theology. Knowledge
about God can replace an authentic knowing of him to our destruction, especially for the theologically
refined and convinced. We all should want our theology to be not only true, but Spirit-filled and
fruitful.
The Best Readers Can Be the Worst Listeners
2 din 6
2/25/2015 9:31 AM
You Cannot Serve Both God and Theology
http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/247944-cannot-serve-god-theology.html?print
The Pharisees fought Jesus at every turn. They doubted and even hated much of what he said and did,
and tried again and again to trap him in a lie or inconsistency. They had read God’s word over and
over again. They knew this book really well—or so it seemed—and yet they did not know the Word
living, breathing and speaking in front of them—the Word through whom all things were made and
without whom nothing was made that was made (John 1:3), the Word who became flesh and walked
the earth (John 1:14), the Word who is the perfect picture of God and who upholds the universe with
the words of his mouth (Hebrews 1:3).
Mark recounts one of these confrontations between Jesus and the so-called spiritual experts of his day.
“The Pharisees and the scribes asked [Jesus], ‘Why do your disciples not walk according to the
tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’” (Mark 7:5). We know this was not Pharisaical
humility and genuine curiosity (Matthew 12:14; 22:15). This was defiance—an attempt to undermine
and shame the Son of God.
They were so confident in their theology that they confronted the Christ himself. They tried to pin him
down under the feather-weight and wading-pool-depth of their theology—the One who was the
fulfillment and pinnacle of all the pages they had read. They challenged God’s own understanding of
God. Their education and pride—their knowledge and confidence in their own system—had blinded
them to the very image and voice of God. They knew so much about God, and yet knew him so little.
Even the Literate Need to Learn to Read
Jesus responds to their ignorant and murderous criticism with the very Scriptures they seem to know
so well. “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their
lips, but their heart is far from me’” (Mark 7:6–7). Hypocrisy, according to Jesus, disconnects
knowledge of God from true love for God. Hypocrisy is not just about disobedience to the Bible—the
3 din 6
2/25/2015 9:31 AM
You Cannot Serve Both God and Theology
http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/247944-cannot-serve-god-theology.html?print
Pharisees would have been thought of as clearly “obedient”—but about disillusionment with the God of
the Bible. You can know him and not know him. And that might be the most dangerous place in all the
world—however comfortable, safe and informed it may feel.
Jesus goes on to say, “You leave the commandment of God”—an awful, terrifying condemnation—“and
hold to the tradition of men” (Mark 7:8). You have traded the truth about God for images of the truth,
manufactured by your own mind. You’ve loved what you’ve learned about God more than God himself.
You’ve trusted your knowledge and obedience more than the mouth of God. “For the sake of your
tradition, you have made void the word of God” (Matthew 15:6).
You Can Tithe Theology, Too
So we should fear money when it leads our hearts and allegiances away from God. And we should fear
our system of theology when it more subtly does the same. In our good disciplines of learning about
God—reading, asking, listening, writing—we must take care to develop habits of treasuring and
worshiping him, too. Be committed to having a right theology, but be as committed to having a
relational theology—a growing, humble and heartfelt intimacy with God. Do not simply search the
Scriptures for soteriology, but search for salvation—the eternal life—that is only found in the flesh,
blood and person of Jesus Christ (John 5:39).
Tithe your theology. Just like all money is God’s, all good theology is God’s, too—it’s all about him, all
from him and all for him. Still, we give 10 percent or more of our money to declare week after week
our gratitude, faith and joy in God, even to say that it is all his. Likewise, we need rhythms of
responding to God in worship when we learn more about him. Look for every opportunity to offer what
you’ve seen about God back to him in prayer and worship.
4 din 6
2/25/2015 9:31 AM
You Cannot Serve Both God and Theology
http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/247944-cannot-serve-god-theology.html?print
Stop, and pray God’s words about God back to him. Journal as a way of stimulating your heart over
the things your mind is beginning to understand. Put the truths you’re learning on your lips for others
to hear and love—share them with someone. The psalmist responded this way to knowing God and his
love more deeply in Psalm 63: “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.
… My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips”
(Psalm 63:3, 5).
We will never be truly satisfied by knowing about God. We need to know him. If that dichotomy
doesn’t make sense to you, beware. Facts about God without feelings for him and fellowship with
him—without a sense that you are God’s chosen, redeemed and known son or daughter—will give you
a false sense of God’s love and security. But facts about God can also draw you closer to him.
You cannot serve both God and theology, but you can serve and love and treasure God with good
theology.
“We need our theology to be not only true, but Spirit-filled and fruitful.”
Like
1.2k
23
Print Version
Marshall Segal (@MarshallSegal) is executive assistant to John Piper, a recent graduate of Bethlehem
Seminary in Minneapolis, and author of Single, Satisfied, and Sent: Mission for the Not-Yet Married.
More from Marshall Segal or visit Marshall at http://twitter.com/marshallsegal
Please Note: We reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, uncivil and
off-topic. Read a detailed description of our Comments Policy.
5 din 6
2/25/2015 9:31 AM
You Cannot Serve Both God and Theology
http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/247944-cannot-serve-god-theology.html?print
Copyright © 2014 ChurchLeaders.com Privacy Terms of Use Advertise About Us Newsletter Signup
Contact Us We're Hiring feedback
6 din 6
2/25/2015 9:31 AM
