The White, the Black, and the Grey

Jesus never spoke in grey. It was always solid, whether black or white. He was clear and concise with everything he said. When he talked of loving our enemies, he did not put stipulations on the statement, but just told us to love our enemies. He was that blunt. When he spoke of himself being the way, it was what he meant. When he talked of the end times, it was a promise that he would one day return. There was never grey in anything he said.

Something has been troubling me lately over the idea of theology. Not that theology is necessarily a bad thing. In fact I have my own set of beliefs and theology. The problem however is that theology does not save, only Christ does. Yet some people seem to think that one’s salvation is dependent upon their theology. As if choosing between predestination/free will, pre/mid/post tribulation, speaking in tongues, or any of these ideas are what grant salvation. 

Please understand that I am not knocking any of these beliefs, because as I have already mentioned I have my own thoughts on all of these. Yet I realize however that God has called us to follow him, rather than to study him. Sometimes I think we have a way of learning about God instead of looking like Christ.

Many theologians would argue against me, saying that you must have a set theology in order to understand God. That you must believe a certain way. Yet Christ never taught this. Had some of the major arguments in theology been as important as we make them out to be, it is my belief that Jesus would have made them black or white rather than grey areas. How do I know that most theology is grey? Because often times people can argue over it and never come to the same conclusion, meaning that Jesus never gave an absolute answer on it. Yeah I would have loved for Jesus just to have come out and said “You who believe, were all predestined to eternity.” That would have put that argument to rest (for the most part, trust me, I understand that some people would just argue about anything). 

However the two things that Jesus taught us and they go well with 1 John 3, is that all that matters is that we believe in his claims to who he is and to love one another. He did not say you had to believe in free will, pre-tribulation, gift of the tongues, etc. It was to believe on him and to love others the way that he loved. 

Now I know that some of you are going to argue that much of Paul’s writings and Jesus’ teachings in collaboration teach us certain theologies and truth’s about God. This is true. However we must remember the first century believers. They did not have the compilation of the scriptures (this did not come until centuries later). So the church of Galatia did not have the letter to the church of Ephesus. What I am trying to get at is that they did not have the letters to compare to one another to come to the conclusion of certain theological truths. Why did God make it this way? Well partly because he is mysterious in nature, but also because these things were not as important as we make them out to be. So what am I saying?

That a person does not have to have the right theological beliefs or agree on these beliefs, but has to believe in Christ and love others. This is what is important. This is black and white.