Last week, a minor league baseball team forfeited a game because several players on the team refused to wear rainbow, “Pride” affirming jerseys. Several major league players also received backlash for displaying Bible verses on their baseball caps during a game marketed as a “LGBTQ Pride Night.” It is all too common for these kinds of stands to be labeled “unloving” in our society. And LGBTQ issues are just one example of this. Today if you contradict anyone’s beliefs, you risk being labeled a hater.
But the apostle Paul offers a different diagnosis. He writes to Timothy:
“As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” (1 Timothy 1:3-5)
According to Paul, Timothy risks undermining love in the church if he lets false teaching and sin continue unchecked. False doctrine suffocates love. But biblical doctrine revives love. Biblical doctrine leads us to the God who is Love and defines love and lavishes his love upon us in Jesus.
Paul wants Timothy to charge the church to teach only true, biblical doctrine for the sake of love. The goal (telos) of promoting good theology and confronting bad theology is love. To allow false doctrine to go unchecked in the church is profoundly unloving. It is unloving to let lies rage like wildfire among Christ’s people. It is unloving to ignore distortions of the gospel, distortions of God’s character, or distortions of God’s commands.
The standard is the “stewardship from God that is by faith”. This stewardship is the sound doctrine of Scripture that we receive by faith. Anything that rejects, denies, or distorts this stewardship will not end up on the path to love.
But when the church promotes biblical teaching, the church pursues love that has a solid foundation in purity of heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith (1 Tim 1:5). Good theology promotes the purity of our hearts. We find cleansing in Christ, and God creates a clean heart in us as we believe the gospel. Biblical teaching also properly aligns our inner compass of right and wrong based on God’s standards. And sound doctrine fans our faith into flame by showing us the wonder of who God is and what he has done.
In contrast, bad theology muddies our hearts. It leads us to believe lies about God, the world, and other people. False teaching misaligns our inner sense of right and wrong. It also corrupts our faith and makes it looks fake, because it is man-made and not based on God’s truth. False doctrine shipwrecks our faith and drowns our love (1 Tim 1:19-20).
Therefore, if love is our telos, we will confront false doctrine and proclaim biblical truth without apology. Love should be our aim. Love should also influence our manner of proclaiming the truth. We don’t want to be jerks. We want people to see the beauty of the gospel and the beauty of living God’s way.
The most loving way to live is not ignoring sin and bad theology. The most loving way to live is graciously pointing people to God’s truth in Scripture as we live it out ourselves. Lord, help us to pursue this kind of love in the church by pressing into the sound doctrine of your Word.
Theology and Technology 