Principles Vs. Correct Thinking/Philosophy/Doctrine
For a biblical studies blog, it might seem unusual to y’all for me to post a video that deals with kinesiology. But, if you will look at the category of this post, you will see it listed under “Principles”.
A principle is a universal, non-optional, cause-and-effect relationship.
So, let’s explode your thinking that your prime job is to correct false theology and bad doctrine. Your job is to build the right thing, and fight the right enemy. True, exposing false teaching is a part of the Christian/Jewish experience. But it is only a part. And many of us have come to believe that it makes up most or all of our job description as Jesus’ followers.
The Bible teaches a principle-based faith that executes beyond mere doctrine, what we believe. We move past expounding on what we think, and we move into expounding on how we respond, act, grow, and build, in response to what we believe.
We move into the arena of cause-and-effect.
Stacy is countering a lot of bad thinking. She is verbally warring, and in her life, practically meleeing, against improperly-executed principles: widely-held, cause-and-effect relationships that are completely unrelated (message to women: eat soy and engage in low-impact cardiovascular activity in response to not losing weight during perimenopause). And she combats it with real execution of real principles that have brought real results.
And principles are what we are followers of Jesus Christ build with. Not theology. Not doctrine.
Protecting Fences Vs. Using Them and Building Other Things…
Do we erect fences at times? Yes.
But do we build everything in our lives using the materials that are designed only for fences? Absolutely not!
Theology and doctrine are a fences. They are not a comprehensive set of building materials.
And fences make a great boundary marker, but a lousy airplane.
As Christians, we need to move merely beyond protecting theology and defending theology. We need to move into using principles to build with.
Again, what are principles?
Answer: Universal, non-optional, cause-and-effect relationships.
If we are so interested in how false everybody else’s theology is, but we are not interested in doing anything that is of practical value, we cut out about 90% of what we were designed to do with Scripture, which is FULL of principles, and all of Reality, which is also FULL of principles, and we reduce the life Christ purchased for us into an anemic shadow of merely erecting a dead edifice that is only constructed of the propositions we agree to, and we don’t bother scaling the mountain the culture has placed before us by using the principles to build the ladder, rope bridge, or carved staircase.
And how do we use the principles (ALL of the principles) to effect and produce change.
We need to desperately understand the principles Scripture teaches, such as:
- how women teach and preach, vs. how men teach and preach,
- how men parent vs. how women parent,
- how singles parent vs. how marrieds parent,
- how we connect with one another differently based on sexual differences,
- how we connect based on our varied designs from man to man and woman to women,
- how we weave the principles together to build: an auto, an airplane, a ship, and a shoe,
- how we each connect with various aspects of creation,
- those who connect with animals or plants vs. humans,
- those who connect with individuals vs. groups,
- how different people lead their companies, churches, countries, families, and schools differently, based on their unpacked design (Saul’s leadership vs. David’s Leadership, vs Solomon’s Leadership),
- how woundedness stunts our growth vs. how sin affects our growth vs. how demons, Leviathan, Nephilim, unclean spirits, or alien human spirits affect us (NEWS FLASH: it is not one or the other, but it frequently is facets of a couple of things. Your over simplification of a problem to only all sin, or only all demons does not help matters,
- and why a man’s body responds differently than a woman’s body when exposed to identical activities.
How Change Comes
If we want to produce change, we do not accomplish it by building more fences in order to show others how we are different from or better than them.
If we want to produce change, we do that by building cities, buildings, roads, professions, vehicles, communities.
Take the analogy, listen to. this video, and consider where you have been erecting fences instead of building homes, gang.
We Preach What Jesus Is Preparing…And It Ain’t Merely Fences
To finish, consider the following. Jesus never said, “I go to erect a fence in heaven to protect my very vulnerable kingdom”, nor did he say “when you preach, make your primary focus showing others their fences are in the wrong place and showing them how your fence is superior to their fence”.
And, before you shout at me, yes, I know there is a wall in heaven, and a fence, and a gate to keep undesirables out.
But that was not the sole focus of Jesus discourse on the kingdom.
Kingdoms are all about building, building blocks, and other masculine-type work.
They are not merely or only or primarily about fences.
Rather, the focus is:
What does that wall protect?
Instead, Jesus said:
I go to prepare a PLACE for you…
That place, though protected by a boundary, is, in fact, a home not built with fences, but a whole host of raw materials.
Gang, are you only erecting fences, or are you making a difference? For the focus has been on building fences. And it has needed to always be, instead of fenses (see what I did there?).
Are you driving others and impacting them to focus on returning home, or to merely obsess over whether or not they are engaging with the fence the way they are supposed to be?
Are you building with fence pickets, or are you using EVERYTHING THAT HAS BEEN GIVEN TO YOU?
Are you incorporating both the fence and the building blocks.
It is time to grow the whole property, and the whole of what he has given you.
Not just the fence, which is a fraction of what Father has given you, but also the home he has given you the raw materials to build.
Very little