The new thinking in Christianity is to fall in love with Jesus. I totally agree with that. In fact, God agrees with that (“love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind” Matthew 22:37). But at the same time, the concept of theology has become a bad word. Love Jesus, shun theology. Don’t talk about it, don’t bring it up. Only love.

My concern with this thinking is if you only love Jesus but never study him (after all, theology is “the study of God”), then you run the risk of falling in love with a Jesus that may not exist.

Without theology, we begin to shape a Jesus after what we want him to be. He is love, he is a good teacher, he is forgiving. Yes, Jesus is all these things. But as part of the Godhead, he is also holy, righteous, and just. I think sometimes those are aspects of God we are not comfortable with, so we choose not to associate them with Jesus.

It’s like saying you love your wife (or husband) very very much. But you don’t know her favorite color, her funniest childhood memory, or her deepest desire. You just love her, right? Can you really love your wife that deeply if you don’t know anything about her? I’d say go take your wife out on a date… nah, make that a month long vacation and get to know her more 🙂

In the same way, can we say we love Jesus if we don’t know who “he” is? Theology helps us understand who Jesus is. And love him as he is (God in all his glory).

Fall in love with Jesus. And through theology, discover him, so that you love him more.