A Christianity That Does Not Inform Us
How To Live, Is No Christianity At All

by Stuart DiNenno

It is not enlightenment that is being displayed, but a kind of intellectual and spiritual poverty, when Christian speakers or writers who have an accurate understanding of theology constantly harp on matters of soteriology (e.g., TULIP, salvation by faith alone, the errors of Arminianism, etc.) and other theological abstractions but neglect to discourse about applying the tenets of Christianity to practical matters of everyday life. There are a multitude of real world circumstances to which the Bible could be, and should be, applied, and we do not glorify God, we do not further the cause of Christianity, and we do not stand against the forces of evil, when we reduce our religion to mere intellectual rumination on abstract theological concepts.

Arthur Pink wrote: “There is no doctrine revealed in Scripture for a merely speculative knowledge, but all is to exert a powerful influence upon conduct. God’s design in all that He has revealed to us is to the purifying of our affections and the transforming of our characters.

In simpler terms, the Bible is about changing our lives, not merely exercising our intellects. It is vital to have an orthodox understanding on all points of doctrine but the result of all our Christian learning should be a progressive renovation of our characters, and a zeal for conforming our conduct — and that of our families, our churches, and our nations — to biblical precepts. In fact, we do not possess an orthodox understanding of theology if it is not so.

Our religion must be diligent to address the question, How shall we then live? rather than only, How shall we then believe? If it does not, then it is not genuine Christianity.