The Ultimate End of Theology.
On the Sterling College Controversy as “The aim of our charge is love, stemming from a pure heart, a clear conscious and a sincere faith.” – 1 Timothy 1:5
I can remember it like it was yesterday, we were sitting in the newly refurbished “Fireside” at Sterling College. The year was 2012 and I was a junior there still dissecting my painful and yet wonderful summer working with Denver’s homeless population. Before me was a group of students who were having a heated debate about the hot-topic of women’s ordination. One student was all for it, she felt called, and indeed was working on becoming qualified to become a pastor. The other student was from a more fundamentalist upbringing. She was not a fan of women’s ordination and she thought the other girl was wrong to be pursuing a ministerial call. My ministry at the time had settled this question for ourselves the year before as we organized our writing team and invited our first women onto our board. I was already in the process of writing my master class on 1st Timothy and so was just there to answer theological questions. Unfortunately the debate got heated and one girl left crying and angry with her peer.
As I sat there with the remaining students, most of whom had been onlookers from both sides of this debate and which still included the fundamentalist leaning complementarian. I said to the group: “Do you know why that conversation ended that way? What was missing?” The initial round of answers were along the lines of; “Well I could have listened to her points better.” Or “she could have been willing to hear a different side.” Since both women were having the conversation, I did not believe those two things were the case, instead I pointed out that what was missing was “love.” It was then that I decided upon what I now, 12 years later, tell my students at the beginning of class at that same institution where I teach as an Adjunct; “The end of all theology is love, Love for God first and love for one another second. If your theology doesn’t produce love for God and love for one another, rethink or do away with it.”
What we think about God is important, thinking rightly about God is of the utmost importance. All theology has to start and end with Jesus and His love for God and the world. Theology that does not start and end with this is not theology, it is philosophy and ends up being worldly rather than other-worldly. Theology that fails to produce love for God and one another is not theology, it is something else.
“The End of Our Theology Must Be Love, Love for God and Love for One Another.”
That does not mean we cannot talk about hot-button issues, but it does mean that when we talk about those hot button issues, it has to be done with lo8ve for God and Love for one another at the forefront of our minds. We should set Jesus greatest commandment to “Love the lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind…and love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-38); like a tassels so that like the Hebrews in Numbers 15:31-47 we may have it to remember this command and not go out in hate or do theology in a manner that is unloving. If we do not, as Paul says: “If we speak with all the tongues of angels but have not love, I am like a loud clanging symbol.” 1 Corinthians 13:1-7. Or as the Apostle John writes in his letters: “If we say we love God, but hate our brothers we are a liar and the truth is not in us” (1 John 4:20, translation mine). Love for God must create a natural outpouring of love for others, otherwise it is not love fore God. Having all the great spiritual gifts of oration or healing means nothing if you do not have love for God or others. A people reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, should be reconciled and living in a community of love with one another.
That brings me to the current controversy at my Alma Mater. I do not want to rehash the news reports, but in some it sounds like what was once a culture of love and care for others and tolerance of differing viewpoints has become a culture of fear and threats of termination if faculty do not conform to a Judeo-Christian-American Evangelical, conservative, understanding of Christian Orthodoxy.
Let me state up front that I have no issue with Sterling taking stances on secondary issues. I also, in theory, have no problem with Sterling desiring its faculty to be Christians who live out the word of God. My issue is how these things are being done and how they affect the witness of Jesus. God is a God of love, not of fear and any action that makes us afraid of God or His Church is contrary to who God is at his core. We must be willing to hold in tension opposing viewpoints on matters of opinions and beliefs. Even during my time at Sterling I saw the faith of others destroyed by the way they were treated by young, learning theologians who were overzealous in their positions and neglected love. I, myself, was not immune to that and said some very hurtful things as a young theologian, I may even be responsible for the loss of faith in others because of dogmas that were taught unlovingly or insisting on actions that were not reflective of Jesus.
Jesus commands are just that, commands. The command to love God and love others is not something that is optional for Christians, it is at the central nexus of the Christianity life, every decision we make, every thought we have must be captive to love for God and love for others, every opinion, every belief and every conviction needs to be examined by the love of Christ, if it is found wanting, throw it away.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be disagreements, on the contrary, there will be plenty of disagreements, but God is not mocked and so in those disagreements we have to learn; as Dr. Emmitt Price III says: “Disagree without being disagreeable.” We must learn to disagree in love and disagree in such a way that we are not divided on secondary issues that are matters of belief and opinion. To expand on Brother Price’s idea; we must learn to disagree in a way that allows us to remain in a loving relationship with God and one another. If we do not, we do not have love for God or for one another. If we alienate people over secondary issues, then we are not living the Jesus life in the Jesus way. With this we must make sure our affections are properly ordered, that means our love has to be directed at God and at others, so often our love ends up directed at the doctrines themselves, we end up confusing love for doctrine with love fore God and neglecting love for others all together. The reality is, properly aimed affections, love for God, will naturally lead to and generate love for others, if you love God, you WILL love others.
The board of Sterling needs to be acting out of love, President Rich needs to be acting out of love. For God first that generates love for others. I have not problem with a statement of faith being signed by faculty as long as the culture around it is loving and the language of the statement of faith is loving. That statement of faith cannot elevate secondary issues to that of primary issues, it cannot make matters of conviction, matters of opinion. We must observe the old latin saying: “In the essentials unity, in the nonessentials liberty and in all else charity.” There are core convictions of Christinaity that must be agreed on, though agreed on in love and out of love, like Jesus being God and man and dying on the cross for our sins. We cease to be the church if we do not affirm this truth, we must be unified on these issues. However, issues such as; women’s ordination, mode of baptism, time of baptism, these are secondary issues that must we must hold both charity and liberty. We must speak on them lovingly and with great compassion, otherwise we lose our audience and risk turning people away from Jesus.
Those who have been hurt or felt ignored need to remember to respond out of love, not hurt and those outside agitators need to be reminded that their job as Christians-so-called is to speak lovingly into the situation, not create more division by stirring up more strife and intentionally harming the college. Remembering that this issue could have been handled internally and should still be. Those who stir up division are the ones Paul tells Timothy and Titus to send away and have no more to do with. If these outside agitators, alumni and former professors as they may be, should cease immediately if they are not going to walk in love and be a voice of unity, rather than division. Remember that twisting the truth is a sin as is defaming other believers because they have not done what you want them to do.
My concern here is that these issues are not being approached in love, they are not being addressed lovingly or with great compassion. Jesus is not the starting point of these discussions, and the ending point seems further and further away from Jesus as the waters get muddier. Sterling has always been a place people can come and safely meet Jesus in the classroom, where the Love of God has flown freely, in most cases, towards those with differing viewpoints. To lose that would be to lose ourselves as an institution.
So I charge the board and President Rich to take the charge of Love seriously. To start and end with Jesus and the love He has for them and for those around them. To examine their faith and their motives and to respond to these issues better than the world does. To not love doctrines of man more than they love God or the professors charged to their care and stewardship. I charge them to make the end of their theology love for God and for others. I do this because I love God and them so much, because my formative years at Sterling were some of the hardest but best of my life. Let us remember what John 4:8 reminds us: “God is love, and whoever abides in Love, abides in God, and God abides in Him.” I charge them also to clear up the language in the handbook as has been asked. To be the adults in the room and lead in such a way that God is honored and the college and her students are honored. Finally, I charge them to listen to the aggrieved parties and take their concerns seriously and to make changes where changes need to be made and stand for truth where truth needs to be stood for, but do both in love.
I charge those who are hurting, those who feel unheard and who now feel they have no recourse but the news media to stop and pray, to seek a solution that does not defame and is not rooted in twisted truth over an issue that is now being blown beyond proportion, an issue that could have been resolved years ago, had others listened and cared.
Finally to the outside agitators I charge you to stop, to take down your facebook posts and to stop feeding misleading media narratives about what is going on here. Stop defaming your brothers and sisters in Christ and repent. Let the two sides work these things out behind close doors as they should have been in 2017 when this issue first arose. Please refrain from causing greater division and strife then already exists and instead come alongside those hurt as a helper and friend who will care for them and listen, but encourage them to walk in love and compassion.
Love must prevail, the Love of GOD, for GOD and from that overflow, love for others.
In Christ Jesus
Rev. Jonathan Faulkner, Sterling College class of 2013.
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