Demonstration vs. Declaration

I was listening to a podcast from a church planters gathering and the speaker was talking about contextualization.  The presentation was outstanding as he talked a lot about what it means to become integrated into your community and culture while still remaining distinctive; a “city within the city”.

 

In his closing prayer, he said something that really struck me.  He said, “I pray that we would be better at demonstrating our doctrine than declaring it.”

 

Something in me stirred up when he said that.  It’s not so much that what he said was a brand new concept; it was something else that I can’t quite put my finger on.

 

I’ve had a growing thought ever since college that theology and doctrine can’t just be a gathering of abstract thoughts and beliefs.  If they don’t make a difference in how we live our lives then what good are they?  The fact of the matter is that all of us have a theology that we live out every single day.  We are demonstrating who God is in every single thing we say, think, do or don’t do.

 

One of my favorite lines from any book is one from Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller.  In it he says, “What we say we believe is not what we believe; what we believe is what we do.”  You cannot separate belief and action, even though us Westerners would like to think that we can. 

 

If I say that I trust in God’s grace for my justification and salvation, but then every time I sin try to “do better the next time” so that God will be more pleased with me, then I don’t truly believe in God’s grace.  I believe that I can be good enough to assuage his wrath towards me, which is the opposite of the message of the Gospel.

 

So back to the original quote.  I have always been better at declaring my belief than demonstrating it.  Part of this is just because I think I’ve been gifted at publicly communicating truth, but part of it is my deficiency in really demonstrating what I would say I believe, that is, the Gospel. 

 

Ultimately I believe this to be, like pretty much everything else, a heart issue.  Now I could fake love, compassion, and selflessness for a while, but if my heart is not truly motivated and kept by the Holy Spirit, then I will become tired of living that out and resent having to do it.  But if my heart is surrendering (notice that I’m implying that it’s an ongoing process) to the truth of the Gospel, then the fruit of the Spirit will be evident and long-lasting.  Thus, my demonstration of who God is could outweigh my declaration of that. 

 

And that is how God has, is, and will most effectively use his Church to reconcile the world to himself.