Love Doesn't Have To Be Old To Be Real - 07
But do you learn to love in seminary?
So, if time is a necessary ingredient in God’s recipe to grow our love for Him and His Church, then where does this leave the young man coming out of seminary? Has four years in a Christian college and three more in theological training made him a better lover? Perhaps. Maybe not.
You would think that immersed study in the Word of God, with the assistance of theological teachers - both in person and dead ones too - would add greatly to the young man’s knowledge.
The problem is: knowledge is not love. And knowing is not doing.
A seminary graduate might know some things that his mom and dad never learned in school (or in church). However, his walk with the Spirit has been a short one. No one should conflate knowing about God with knowing God; further, no one should assume that knowing about God is the same as loving God.
I tell my children and grandchildren, “It is more important to be good than to be right.”
And I do become unsettled when I’m in a debate over theological things with my kids. Why? It’s because I fear they may be yielding to a lie. I know that sounds a bit presumptuous, as if the things I believe must be correct and if they disagree with me it means that they’re surely wrong.1
They could be right while I’m wrong. Still, it is my heart that is for them. More than any possession, experience, education, or relationship in life, I want my children (and grandchildren) to love God and obey Him. And sometimes, to love Him, it may mean they will have to oppose me (and vice-versa).
As to the accumulation of knowledge, it is important. You learn about God this way. You should be a reader and thinker and prayer and discusser and maybe you should write your thoughts down a little. But there is no rush. God is a patient teacher. His plan is your lifelong maturity. You get to love God and grow as a young man. You are not supposed to have life’s answers yet. So learn about God as you work, marry, have children, pay bills, go to church, develop relationships, etc.2
However, don’t treat knowledge like it’s a sport. We are called to apply the knowledge and to love God more deeply based upon the things we learn. We are told to craft our lives around His commands and to teach our children.
5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.3
Knowledge of God’s Word unapplied is a waste. The Apostle James reminds us that knowledge doesn’t help the demons too much; yet still, they know enough to shutter.4
I listened recently to a podcast where two young men were talking about the original languages: Hebrew and Greek. The one being interviewed was an expert in these languages and had built an APP to help other people learn the ancient languages more easily. I was intrigued.
I bring this up because the interviewer, who had studied the languages in seminary and continues to work at it, asked the interviewee his views regarding certain Hebrew and Greek words being used in an ongoing debate (in his circles) over male headship. Does the word “head” have reference to authority (hierarchy) or does it refer more to the concept of source (origin). Not to get lost in those weeds here, I only mention this because of how the interviewer became a bit giddy that he was close, so close (about 71% there) to taking a final position on headship.
I thought to myself, Do you think this is a game? Like a puzzle in which you get to decide where to put the pieces. Some kind of intellectual challenge? Are you like those philosophers in Athens, who found great delight spending “their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new…”? Do not be so cavalier!5
Paul’s words to the Corinthians came to mind, “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. But if any man love God, the same is known of him.”
Then I thought about all of the sheep in the area churches, in our church too, and how they can be abused when men delight too much in “being right” or “being clever.” I thought, Don’t toy with a congregation. They expect to build their lives upon the Scripture. You are supposed to shepherd as the pastor/elder. Love God first. Love people second. And then help them learn how they can too. Every minister will answer to God for how he embraces or dismisses the truth. A minister will either help the sheep or damage them by his teaching and his measure of love.
Probably, one of the most important lessons taught to men by the Apostle James was that, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.”6
I don’t think a seminary education is sufficient to build a man into a lover of God. Time is also required. There are a lot of lessons of the soul that must be learned.
I also don’t hold much hope that the knowledge gained by a pastor/elder of any age will help the sheep if it is unattached from love. That person is unhelpful, like a noisy gong or clanging cymbal, he is of no use.7
I raised them to think hard on God’s things. And, as iron sharpen iron, the hens have come to roost. It’s a good thing as long as our debates are undergirded with humility (which is not always the case).
I offer some suggestions, in subsequent chapters, as to how to prepare yourself while you are busy with all the other responsibilities of life.
Deuteronomy 5
James 2:19
If my mind seems a little critical here, I assure you that I see myself in the man I’m criticizing. Many college graduates can think back to those academic days when we sat around with our friends formulating conclusions about the world. We thought we were so intelligent!
James 3:1
1 Corinthians 13:1-2