Why Are Christians So Obsessed With Practical Application?
A Passionate Plea To Recover A Well-Rounded View Of Application
In a consumer culture, we are always asking the question: How can I use this “thing” to enhance my life?
Marketing expert Donald Miller is a master at teaching marketers to tell people a story about how their product will change someone’s life. “Instead of telling your story, the first stage of your marketing plan should be to pique a customer’s curiosity about how their story could be made better.”1
The idea of good marketing is to tell people a story about how this particular product would change the lives of the consumers who purchase it and use it in their lives.
We live in a day where we are obsessed with using anything to enhance our lives. When we have this mindset coming to the Scriptures we tend to neglect a well-rounded view of what biblical application is.
What Is Biblical Application?
All theology must be applicable. It is not true theology if it is dry, dull, and un-applicable. 2 Peter 1:3 says, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.”
Listen to what John Calvin says when commenting on this verse:
“For the knowledge of God is the beginning of life and the first entrance into godliness.
In short, spiritual gifts cannot be given for salvation, until, being illuminated by the doctrine of the gospel, we are led to know God.”
- John Calvin and John Owen, Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 369.
Notice that God grants us knowledge of Him that produces godliness. Everything that God has revealed to us is for the purpose of us living unto Him. In this sense, nothing in divine revelation is “unusable”.
In his book A Little Book for New Theologians, Kelly Kapic says, “Growing in our knowledge of God changes our view of everything else.”2 Theology does and should change how we think, feel, act, speak, and relate. Again Kapic says, "Attempting to separate life and theology is to lose the beauty and truthfulness of both." But, Kapic says you might ask, "How is my life related to my theology?" He answers, "It is a fairly modern notion to separate theology as a science from theology as a practical reflection on life."3 Throughout the history of the Christ's Church, all theology has always been applied to all of life. When this was neglected, you began to see the Church live unfaithfully and exchange the glory of the Creator for the creature.
To not apply our theology is like making dinner but not letting anyone eat it. We only starve ourselves and others in the process.
It is clear we need to apply our theology by the arguments above. But, what types of biblical application are there? Paul tells Timothy that God’s Word is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17). This is why Timothy is to “preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (4:2).
If we are to love God with all our hearts, soul, mind, and strength (Lk. 10:27) then we should apply theology to the areas of heart, soul, mind, and strength. If we are to be renewed in our minds (Rom. 12:1-2) then that means we need to make application to help us think rightly.
It is interesting that Paul says in Ephesians 4:13 that “knowledge of the Son of God” is what helps us build up into “mature manhood, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”. Again, he says in 4:22-24 that we are to “put off the old self” and then “be renewed in the spirit of your minds” followed by “put on the new self”. In other words, you can’t put on the new self before renewing your thinking. Truth guides living.
Humans are made up of body and soul. We are beings who think, feel, speak, act, and relate to God and others. This means that well-rounded application is not merely “do this” but often “believe this”. Matter of fact, “believe this” always precedes “do this”. The indicative always comes before the imperative. Gospel enables obedience to God’s Law. If we do not have well-rounded application then we are not building people up into maturity in Christ.
Where Should Theology Be Studied?
Theology is never separated from real life application. Theology is meant to be in the church before it is in the academy. And even when theology is in the academy it should always be for the church.4 It is horribly wrong to think that “theologians” are only trained professionals who teach and write to other trained professionals. R.C. Sproul is spot on when he says, “Everyone is a theologian.”5
Joel Beeke gives us a good warning if we find ourselves only wanting to keep theology in our heads or the academic world. “Academic education has great value, but a love for academics for their own sake can destroy your soul.”6 Theology is never less than thinking but it does not stay in the realm of thinking only. There are many immature Christians who sound like they know a lot of theology. They might know a lot about theology but not possessing and intimate knowledge of theology. At the same time, there are also many immature Christians who only focus on “living” but forsake the study of God and His works.
The Church is in grave danger when church members, pastors, and seminary professors think that theology is only for the professionals in the academic world. This totally contradicts Jesus when He prays in John 17:3 “This is eternal life that they may know you the One True God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Again, it contradicts what the psalmist says in Psalm 111:2 “Great are the works of the LORD studied by all who delight in them.”
Sanctification is more than learning theology but it is never less than this nor does it move away from this. The local church that pits theology against mission or doctrine against living is in a very bad spot.
Because of the mindset that theology is for those in the academy and not for those in the church, we have seen pastors and preachers speak little about the beauties of theology and knowing God and focus more on man-centered application. This leads us to the problem of modern day application.
The Problem of Modern Application
In our current day, we are overly obsessed with “using” truth of the Bible to apply it to our lives. We become self-centered and think relevant sermons are only the ones that primarily focus on us and how we live. To be sure, all theology is and must be livable. But, we have too narrow of a view of what makes something livable and applicable. Not every command in the Bible is “Do this”. Often it is “Believe this”.
Listen to what the late Haddon Robinson once said about “the heresy of application”7:
I heard someone preach a sermon from Ruth on how to deal with in-laws. Now, it's true that in Ruth you have in-laws. The problem is, Ruth was not given to address in-law problems.
The sermon had a lot of practical advice, but it didn't come from the Scriptures.
His point in this amazing article is that we often make horribly wrong application because we approach the text to use it for the practicalities of our individual lives more than we approach the text to see God redeeming His people.
Robinson uses extreme hyperbole to make a point. “Therefore, we bring to bear on, say, this in-law problem, the full authority of God. The person hearing the sermon thinks, If I don't deal with my mother-in-law this way, I am disobedient to God. To me, that's a rape of the Bible. You're saying what God doesn't say.”8
In our day, we fail to be amazed at God’s grace for Him even revealing Himself to us. God is the incomprehensible one. The 8th Century theologian John of Damascus once said, “After the first and blessed nature no one has ever know God, unless He Himself has revealed Himself to them, not only no human being, but also not even any of the [supernatural beings] themselves, by which I mean the cherubim and seraphim.”9
God cannot be known without Him showing us who He is. No one can stumble upon or search out the knowledge of God; God has to condescend to us and reveal Himself. All true thoughts that we have of God is because God has made it known. To have any knowledge of God is grace in itself! Maybe we get bored with theology and doctrine (not because it is boring but…) because we don’t see the magnitude of God’s grace in showing us who He is and what He has done.
What Should Be Our Response?
Theology is not something you master. It is something that masters you. We approach the Bible totally wrong when we say that we are going to “master” it. We sit under it rather than it sitting under us. We think we master theology because we live in an age where we treat ourselves as the main character of our lives and that everything and everyone else is meant to serve our purposes.
When people complain about sermons not being applicable enough then we need to have a well-rounded reflection. We can’t be so narrow that we think the only types of application have to do with what the Christian does and how they do it. The first and main purpose of a sermon is to help people worship. The sermon is the central part of the worship service. Therefore, the sermon is first and foremost the time when people ought to worship Christ as He is proclaimed in the Scriptures.
Yes, make application to the listener! The Bible gives imperatives. We need to make sure we say what Scripture says, how it says it, and help our people understand what this looks like in their lives. If we leave this out then we are not faithful to God’s Word. But, let us repent of approaching a text with our first mindset being: “How does this product enhance my life?”
We need a reformation of people bowing down before God because of what is preached. The only way that can happen is if God, His Being and Works, are the main emphasis in our sermons. God does not exist as a résumé booster, self-esteem builder, or a means to our own end. God is the end.
From the @storybrand Instagram page on August 2, 2021.
Kelly Kapic, A Little Book for New Theologians (IVP Academic: Downers Grove, IL 2012), p. 26.
Ibid, ,p. 42.
I greatly admire Jason Allen’s emphasis on this as President of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. In his new book Turnaround, he talks about how he had to establish the mission state of the seminary for his tenure: “For the church.” Why this mission statement? “A seminary must exist for the church.” Theology (especially in theological institutions) should always been shown as applicable for the church. This does not mean that truth is watered down, doctrine is replaced with the practical, or that in-depth exegesis is exchanged for lots of “how-to”. Rather, this means that all theology and all doctrine and all exegesis must be shown how it changes lives.
Joel Beeke, Reformed Systematic Theology (Crossway: Wheaton, IL 2019), p. 55.
Ibid.
John of Damascus, On The Orthodox Faith (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press: Yonkers, NY 2022), p. 59.