Pastor Joel from Right Response Ministries addresses the false dichotomy between loving God and sound theology, arguing that neglecting doctrine stems from poor discipleship and Gnostic heresy. He asserts that right knowledge of God's character, redemptive work, and commandments is an absolute prerequisite for genuine love, citing John 4 and 1 John 4:19 to prove one cannot love whom they do not know. Ultimately, the discussion concludes that true worship demands both zeal and wisdom, rejecting arrogance or ignorance in favor of a balanced pursuit where knowledge and love remain inseparable. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
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Doctrine Divides vs Unity00:02:01
Hey, everyone, and welcome to Questions.
I'm sitting here with Pastor Joel today.
How are you doing?
I'm doing great.
Excited to be here.
Awesome.
So, Questions is a show dedicated to you.
We are taking your questions that you send in to us on our website at RightResponseMinistries.com and all of our social media platforms on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and YouTube.
We compile them all together and then we try to get to them on this particular podcast.
So, we're excited to.
Answer your questions.
And today we have a question from Shannon in San Diego.
She says, This Pastor Joel, what would you say to someone who affirms the importance of passion and love for God but neglects the importance of theology?
What would you say to Shannon today?
Great question.
Ultimately, I think that just arises from the average person in the American evangelical church today because I think we've been poorly discipled.
I think that not all, we have heroes in the faith, but many of those who Are professing Christians, and many of them are true, genuine Christians of the generation that preceded us.
They had an aversion towards doctrine.
They really just bought into the lie that if we want unity in the church, then it's going to have to come at the expense of doctrine.
That's really unity is going to have to come at the expense of truth.
Now they recognize we can't throw out all truth or we lose the Christian faith altogether.
And so ultimately, what happened is within the realm of Theological triage, right?
They decided, well, primary doctrinal truths, right?
Cardinal truths like the divinity of Christ, the Trinity, you know, salvation being by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone.
These are truths that we can't compromise, that we can't get rid of.
But there are a lot of other doctrines, more secondary and tertiary doctrines, that just cause quarrels, they cause division.
Right Knowledge of God00:08:05
So, one of the reigning mantras in the church for Several decades now has been doctrine divides.
And so there's been kind of a swerving away from doctrine.
And those who get excited about doctrine are often condemned and accused by professing Christians as being divisive, caring more about knowledge than love.
And so I would say, Shannon, that that's a false dichotomy.
Really, it has its roots in a Gnostic heresy that wants to somehow divorce and sever the.
The mind from the heart.
The reality is that we cannot love what or who we do not know.
So I say in our church all the time, and this is really the heart of this ministry, Right Response Ministries, is that in order to have a right that is a proper and appropriate response to who God is and what He has done, we have to know who God is.
We have to know what He's done.
So I've said this time and time again that.
A right knowledge of God is an absolute prerequisite for rightly loving God.
I'll say it again.
A right knowledge of God is an absolute prerequisite for rightly loving God.
I could possess some of the fringe attributes that appear to be like love for someone who's a stranger or an acquaintance.
I could possess an intrigue, an infatuation, an interest, but I'll never possess a genuine, rich, and robust love for a person that I do not possess a genuine, rich, and robust knowledge about.
So again, I say that a right knowledge of God is an absolute prerequisite for rightly loving God.
And when we speak of right knowledge of God, we're speaking ultimately of doctrine.
We're speaking of theology.
And I think there are three primary categories.
There are a million different topics that we could discuss, but all of them pretty much fall into three big headlines, if you will.
So the first is that we have to have a right knowledge, we have to have right theology about who God is.
Secondly, we have to have right theology, right knowledge about what God has done.
And then lastly, we have to have a right theology, a right knowledge of what God requires.
And this is where we get into man's response to God, a right response.
So, in terms of who God is, starting with the first category, and I'll go briefly and finish up here.
But at this point, we're speaking of the character of God, we're speaking of the nature of God.
See, we cannot worship God for who we wish He was.
We cannot attribute to God those characteristics that you and I might personally prefer.
But rather, if we're to truly love God, we must be true worshipers of God.
And if you'll remember, what does Jesus say about those who are true worshipers of God?
Well, in the Gospel of John, chapter 4, He's speaking with the Samaritan woman by the well, and he says that true worshipers of God worship him in spirit.
And in that context, spirit is actually referring to zeal.
They worship him with zeal, with passion, which has to do with your question, Shannon.
True worshipers of God worship him in spirit, in zeal, and passion, but they also worship him in truth.
There is both passion and doctrine.
There's zeal.
And wisdom, knowledge.
So, in order to truly love God, we have to truly worship God.
And in order to be a true worshiper of God, we have to have both spirit and truth.
We have to have zeal and passion for God, but a zeal and passion that come from a foundation of rightly knowing who God is.
So, that's the first category a right knowledge of the character of God.
Who is God?
Secondly, what has God done?
So, we must know both the character of God, but also the work of God.
We need to understand God's work in creation.
But we also need to understand God's work in salvation.
What is the merciful work of God on behalf of wretched sinners like you and I through the personal work of His Son, Jesus Christ?
We'll never properly love God unless we understand what God has done for us through Jesus.
Our love for God ultimately is simply a response to God's love for us.
We get this from 1 John 4 19.
We love because He first loved us.
But how has he loved us?
What is the depth of his love, the width of his love, the length of his love, the height of his love?
How has God so loved me?
Through his son Jesus Christ.
Even while we are yet sinners, Christ died for us.
So we have to understand God's work in creation, but also, even more importantly than that, we have to understand his work in salvation.
We have to know who God is, but also what God has done, the character of God, but also the work.
Of God.
And then lastly, this third category is that we must rightly know the requirements of God.
We must know his precepts, his commandments, his rules and statutes.
I've used this illustration time and time again in our church where, Michael, you're a member, and so I hope I don't bore you to death, but I think it's helpful, so I'll use it now.
If you're married, Shannon, then you know that if your spouse has frequently and clearly communicated to you the ways in which they feel most loved by you, and assuming that these ways are ethical and moral, there's nothing sinful about them,
if you pay little to no regard for what they've said, And you just deliberately choose to go on loving your spouse on your own terms and in your own ways that are outside of or even contradictory to the ways that your spouse has said they feel most loved, then eventually you have to begin to beg the question do you actually love your spouse?
Well, so it is with God.
So it is with God.
If God has, in fact, on the pages of Scripture, gone to great lengths to communicate to us in his commandments what he requires, Obey me like this, worship me like this.
Ultimately, what we're saying is, Love me like this.
If God has said, Love me like this, and you and I don't have diligent study so that we might possess a right knowledge of how God requires us to love Him, and then we go on loving Him in our own ways, at worst, this is arrogance.
But even at the very best, This is ignorance.
It's apathy.
We haven't done the hard work to diligently come to know God by studying His Word so that we might properly respond in love for God.
So, my point in all of this is that your question comes, I believe, from the American evangelical church that, in many ways, tragically, has been poorly discipled by people who hate doctrine and who have created a false dichotomy between the head and the heart, between knowledge of God and love for God.
But the reality is that these two things can never be divorced.
You cannot love a person.
That you do not know.
Wow.
Well, thank you for answering that, Pastor Joel.
And thank you, Shannon, for sending us in that question.
Please write us at rightresponseministries.com and on all of our social media platforms.
We'd love to get to one of your questions in future episodes.
We'll see you next time on Questions.
As a special thank you for your gift of any amount, we'll be happy to send you a free digital book from our store.
To access this offer, visit rightresponseministries.comslash offer.
We highly recommend Pastor Joel's book, Am I Truly Saved?
If you or someone you know has wrestled with doubts about the love of God, this would be a great resource.
As a reminder, to get this offer, go to rightresponseministries.comslash offer.