When Theology Contradicts Jesus

(The above picture is clickable so that you can zoom in to read the smaller parts of the writing!)

Here is a magnificent piece which I just had to share. In this excellent essay, my friend Glenn Regular explains clearly and simply how following Jesus looks completely different from following Religion. I can put it no better than he does!

Crapology: When Theology Contradicts Jesus

A theology that believes that it is ok to marginalize, oppress, disrespect, segregate, and shun people, reject the teachings of Jesus, and even portray God in ways contrary to His revealed character, yet still claim to be follow Christ’s teachings high treason. A fitting theological term for such a theology I would frame as “Crapology”…a doctrine that bears the name of Christ while denying Him in practice^[1]).

Jesus never taught His followers to measure righteousness by doctrinal correctness while neglecting love. Rather, He declared, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). Love was not an optional virtue in the kingdom of God; it was the defining evidence of authentic discipleship. A theology that produces contempt for others may preserve religious systems, but it does not preserve the spirit of Christ.

John rebutted such theology. “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:8). Notice that John does not say such a person merely has imperfect theology. He says they do not know God. One may be able to quote Scripture, defend doctrines, and argue theology, but if love is absent, the knowledge claimed is revealed to be hollow.

Jesus consistently stood with those whom religion pushed aside. He touched lepers, welcomed sinners, defended adulterers from condemnation, and ate with those considered unclean. The religious establishment objected because His mercy disrupted their theological categories. Yet Christ revealed that the heart of God is not exclusion but reconciliation. “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).

Paul also warned that even the greatest religious accomplishments amount to nothing without love. “Though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2). Not just mistaken. Not just incomplete. Nothing. Love is not the ornament of truth; it is the very atmosphere in which truth lives.

One of the greatest forms of Crapology is the demonization of God Himself. Many have portrayed the Father as a hell sender, less merciful than Christ, and more eager to condemn than to restore. Yet Jesus declared, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). If Jesus forgave His enemies, God forgives His enemies. If Jesus loved sinners, God loves sinners. If Jesus sought the lost, God seeks the lost. Any doctrine that paints God darker than Jesus is a doctrine that has lost sight of its own foundation.

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day possessed impeccable theology by their own standards, yet Christ rebuked them because their doctrines had eclipsed the weightier matters of the law: “justice and mercy and faithfulness” (Matthew 23:23). They searched the Scriptures diligently, but failed to recognize the One to whom the Scriptures pointed (John 5:39-40). Their theology became a substitute for God rather than a pathway to Him.

The tragedy of Crapology is that it often speaks the language of faith while producing the fruit of fear, judgment, division, and exclusion. But Jesus taught that a tree is known by its fruit (Matthew 7:16-20). If a doctrine consistently produces arrogance instead of humility, condemnation instead of mercy, hatred instead of love, and separation instead of reconciliation, then the fruit testifies against the root.

The gospel revealed in Christ is not the triumph of religion over people. It is the triumph of divine love over everything that separates people from God and from one another. “For God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19). The closer one comes to Jesus, the more one learns to love. The further a doctrine leads from love, the further it leads from Christ.

A theology that rejects the character of Jesus while claiming His name deserves to be questioned. A theology that produces contempt while preaching Christ deserves to be challenged. And a theology that makes God look less loving than Jesus deserves a more honest title than Christian theology.

Perhaps “Crapology” will do.