Do you ever hear something and then can’t get it out of your brain? Lately mine has been this quote…
“People say what they think, but do what they believe.”
The person who said this followed up with an example:
You say that eating healthy and maintaining an active lifestyle is important, but your habits of eating unhealthy foods and not working out prove that you don’t really believe it to be that important. You’ve said what you think, but your actions prove what you truly, deeply believe.
One of my favorite authors and Bible teachers explains the same idea in a different way.
In Lead: 12 Gospel Principles for Leadership in the Church, Paul David Tripp lays out this dichotomy between confessional theology and practical theology.
Theology literally means “thinking about God.”
Theology is not some big and scary word, idea, or academic field that only Biblical scholars and pastors get to care about, but it’s something that we all have whether we are aware of it or not. The more we know God and the Bible, the less scary “theology” can become.
Our personal theology is what we think and know about God and it influences what we think about the world and how we treat the people in it. It shapes our entire worldview and our actions toward God, ourselves, and others. In summary–it’s super important!
Tripp explains confessional theology as what we say we believe. To take a phrase from the apostle Paul in Romans 10:9, it’s what you “confess with your mouth”. It might be what is preached from the stage every Sunday at the building you call church, or it might be what has developed in your head and heart through years of your personal walk with Jesus.
On the other hand, your practical theology is what you actually believe and so prove with your actions. It’s the way you treat and interact with people all the hours of the week you’re not at the building you call church. It’s what you prove actually has sunk from a surface-level deep into a character- and soul-level as you act and interact with God and the world.
Tripp gives a good example in the context of church leadership: we love to believe in the mighty and abundant power of grace until our pastor needs it. In this instance, our confessional theology (that grace is freely given and available to all by the power of the cross) does not match our practical theology (where a pastor falls into sin and the church places blame and shame instead of offering mercy and grace).
Another example, more personal to me: I can say that spending time regularly in scripture is important, but when I get to church and the last time I opened my Bible was exactly 7 days ago sitting in the same chair, my actions prove I don’t believe deeply enough that reading my Bible is truly important. My confessional theology and practical theology have swayed away from each other.
Like two indistinguishable lines that run right on top of each other from now until eternity, our confessional theology and practical theology should match. They should be one and the same. But for most of us, they’re not.
Almost unnoticeably, the two lines get slightly off course from each other and as they continue in the straight trajectory that lines can only take, we look up in a year or 5 or 10 and the things we say we believe look nothing like the things we prove we believe with our actions. Friends, we can’t. let. this. happen.
1 John 3:18 says “Beloved children, our love can’t be an abstract theory we only talk about, but a way of life demonstrated through our loving deeds.” (TPT)
If we are going to be people of high character who reflect the life of Jesus, the things we say must match the things we do.
If you believe the gospel matters (Romans 3:23-24), prove it.
If you believe that Jesus called His followers to go and make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20), prove it.
If you believe that God cares for the poor, needy, and outcast and calls us to do the same (Matthew 25:41-45), prove it.
I’m not here to tell you how to live your life, but I do hope to invite you to consider where your lines are at. Are the indistinguishable? I pray so.
And if they’re not, I invite you to the cross where there is grace and forgiveness for our sin and shortcomings.
On this side of heaven, we are never finished being made and remade into the image of Jesus, so there is still time–time to point our lines back together and slowly but surely learn and relearn how to let our lives be a true reflection of what we believe, and let that ultimately be a reflection of King Jesus.
