Humility is the Beginning of Theologizing

HT - Ray Ortlund

Comments

[nancy]

:-)

[underdogtheology]

I believe it is HUMILITY that sets a person on to getting deep into THEOLOGY as he has realized that living for self is a losing proposition and that self-denial and seeking after God are the only viable options.

:-)

[Barry]

To answer the question in that last frame... Yes. Frequently.

[James]

Sounds like an excellent title, because that's a great question to face before reading a theology!

And here's a nice subscript to the title for a note-less 'study' Bible: "you are wrong in much of what you think, say, and do; engage this text seriously, humbly, and prayerfully to find out how"

[Phillip Ross]

From the Introduction of my new book, which might be relevant here:

"The thesis of this book is that Paul thought, wrote and taught that some of the leaders of the Corinthian church had things arsy varsy or ass backwards. And the reason that First Corinthians has been valued over the centuries is that many Christians and churches have found Paul’s insights and teachings to be valuable. It’s a common problem that has plagued Christianity since the time of the Corinthian church, and before that back into the history of the Old Testament to the Fall of Adam. Being a sinner means getting things wrong. Paul was trying to help the Corinthians get things right, and their getting things right meant that they first come to understand that they had things wrong.

Expositional preaching provides the best exposure to a truly biblical perspective of Scripture. By simply preaching through a book of the Bible we cannot avoid those particular Scriptures or ideas that we don’t like. And if we are honest, we will admit that there is much in God’s Word that we don’t like. If we were God, we’d do things quite differently. Thank God we aren’t! God has given us His Word (Scripture) in the order, and with the terminology and the emphasis He wants it to have. Let us endeavor to receive it as He has given it to us, and to pass it forward as we have received it.

The contemporary American churches in the dawning of the Twenty-First Century are in a situation that is remarkably similar to that of the ancient Corinthian church. So, I decided to preach my way through Corinthians with the hope that Paul’s work with the Corinthians will have some pertinent analysis of and application to our own contemporary situation. My approach has not been to read everything I could find about Corinthians in the hope of adding something new to the historic dialog. Rather, my intention is less grand. I hope to see and reveal the trouble the Corinthians had gotten into as a church as clearly as possible in order to understand what Paul was saying to them in the hope of shining some light on our own problem because their problem is our problem. It’s a recurring problem because it is a problem of gospel reception and transmission."

(from my book Arsy Varsy—Reclaiming the Gospel in First Corinthians)

[graceshaker]

thats fantastic!