A Marker of Healthy Theology

All too often those in the reformed circles get the reputation of the stuffy, stodgy, cantankerous curmudgeon who is chomping at the bit for any opportunity to beat people over the head with a doctrinal bat. Unfortunately, that reputation exists for a reason. I see that in myself as well as others. While robust doctrine is absolutely necessary to live lives pleasing to God, it derails when we use it to drive unnecessary wedges in the body of Christ.

In George Marsden's biography of Jonathan Edwards, he explains how Edwards (usually the Superman of the reformed circles) held tightly to particular and confessional convictions while simultaneously yearning for unity in thought and deed in the church.

This, I'm convinced, is a marker of healthy theology.

"Edwards' call for peace was so strong that he sounded almost like one of Boston's Calvinist moderates.

 'The gospel spirit is a catholic spirit, a noble and unconfined benevolence, like unto that of our Creator, not confined to any particular part of mankind exclusive of others...To make the wickedness of men the cause of contention and strife in us, is to make one sin the cause of another. We cannot please the devil better than by hating men's personals under pretense of duty.'

Even doctrinal differences are no excuse for hatred. People can not help what they believe.

'Tis as unreasonable to strive with others because they can't be in everything of our minds, as to quarrel with another because he differs in the color of his hair or the features of his face...However pernicious his tenets, yet we ought, as much as in us lies, to endeavor to live peaceably with him.'"