Knowing About God—and Learning to Love
Knowing the right things about God is not the same as loving the difficult person beside us. Bring the theology out of the notebook and into the relationship.
By Pastor Chris Cahill · 2 minute read · Reflection
When knowledge has yet to become practice
We can give grace a glowing review and still make it hard for anyone beside us to admit a mistake. The words we cherish need to reach the way we live together.
That can begin very quietly: listening without preparing a defense, offering an apology, or noticing a need we have been passing by.
Study deserves a purpose larger than winning
Keep studying. Careful reading can expose manipulation, deepen understanding, and make disagreement fairer. But watch what we do with what we learn. Knowledge becomes spiritually dangerous when its main purpose is raising our rank in the room.
Ask what this knowledge helps you do. Listen more accurately? Recognize a responsibility? Question a comfortable assumption? If an idea mainly reassures us that we are better than other people, it deserves another careful look.
The test is close enough to be uncomfortable
Think of someone who makes you defensive. Your concerns may be legitimate; do not erase them. Examine your conduct as well. Can you describe their view fairly, decline a demand without humiliation, and admit what you misunderstood?
Here is where our cherished words begin to cost us something. We are tired, irritated, or hurt, and the person beside us still deserves care. Learning to love reaches that moment too.
Give one conviction a place in your week
Choose one conviction you affirm and name a concrete behavior that would make it visible this week. If you value mercy, where could you offer a person room to repair? If you value truth, which convenient exaggeration needs to stop? If you value humility, what question should you ask before reaching a conclusion?
Faith does not become authentic merely because we feel challenged. It becomes more integrated as attention, belief, and conduct begin to meet.
Take one truth you cherish and give it a visible place in your week. Correct an exaggeration, ask before assuming, or offer room for repair. Let what we learn about God change how we treat a neighbor.
From the book
Reconstructing Christ — Chapter 3: The Way with a Face. Adapted and expanded for this web reflection.
Faith, hope, and love in action through Christ and kindness.
