Ephesians 4:14-16

Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. (NLT)

Some things we know for sure. Some things we reckon we might know. Other things we simply don’t know. This applies to faith as much as other areas of life. We are reminded that we can’t afford to be tossed around by the latest fad or lured by the fashionable guru. Just as there are fads and fashions in what we wear, there are fads and fashions in theology and in church life generally.

If we have no solid centre, we will risk becoming shallow consumers of whatever is popular at the time. Then again, if we don’t have some openness to change or admit some degree of ambiguity in our beliefs, we will risk becoming narrow minded dogmatists who think they know everything.

Ultimately, faith is not the same as certainty. We can have faith and not be certain of everything. Faith is not the same as knowledge. We can have faith and yet not know everything. And yet faith has to have substance. Having a sound centre enables us to live with mess and mystery on the periphery. Living with uncertainty is not the same as living with chaos.

One of the greatest of modern theologians was Karl Barth, a giant intellect who wrote profusely and deeply. He was apparently asked towards the end of his life what was the most profound truth he had unearthed in all his lifetime of scholarship. He replied, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Many things we cannot and need not know. But that we can and do know.

Blessings

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David

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