Musings on Spiritual Matters

Sometimes we in the church do theology at the fringes.  This means that we jump to either/or conclusions or go to the extreme automatically.  You see this mindset with the terminology of “salvation issue.”  It seems that sometimes we do look at the bible through the paradigm of this set of glasses.  We ask the question automatically, is it a salvation issue, well then we need to serious address it or is it a matter of opinion, therefore it is not important.  Of course, there is the endless debate of what is and what is not.  This is a consequence of this paradigm.  But for Paul, he does not do theology with this either/or perspective.  The issues are more than a salvation issue or not.  He looks at a situation with other mindsets involved.  He has a multiplicity of motivations for what he is doing for the church and for God.  Of course, sometimes it is about a salvation issue, but at other times he argues for this approach or behavior because of caring for others, to bring glory to God, to be all things to all men, and because of the rightness of undivided attention.  If one reads the first letter to the Corinthians, one will see that Paul does not always argue with a polemic perspective.  This mindset of going to the extremes is rooted in the DNA of the church.  If you talk about change, people will go to the extreme examples of change, if you say there is not going to be changes, some people see all hope gone.  We really need to be balanced and think of issues through this mindset of Paul, trying to take into account more than just is it salvation issue or not.  I believe if we do this, we will have a healthier dynamic in the church.

Related posts:

1. Emergent Theology or Restoration Theology
2. Theology Behind A Baptismal Celebration
3. Review of “Reconstructing Pastoral Theology”
4. The Desire of Easy Theology
5. Theology In Ministry Class

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This entry was posted by Matthew on Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010 at 12:34 pm and is filed under Church News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.