Good theology is important, because bad theology distorts our understanding of God and our relationship with him. However, we are not saved by theology. We need to keep it in perspective.

Christianity has never been theologically or doctrinally perfect. We sometimes hear preachers urging people to “get back to the faith once delivered.” By this, they usually mean the early apostolic church, which they assume had a complete understanding of the faith. However, those early churches were not perfect. They had to grow in their understanding of what “sound doctrine” was.

Much of the New Testament was written to correct various wrong ideas. In Corinth, for example, some Christians were tolerating scandalous sexual relationships, suing one another in court, offending each other by their ideas about what they could eat, and becoming drunk at the Lord’s Supper. Some thought they should avoid sex even if married and others thought they should divorce their non-Christian spouses. Paul had to correct these ideas, and history tells us that he had only limited success. But the people were Christian despite their lack of complete doctrinal understanding.

There are many examples of the disciples failing to understand Jesus, even when he was with them. For example, after Jesus miraculously fed thousands of people, he and the disciples got into a boat and Jesus warned them, “Watch out—beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod” (Mark 8:15). The disciples concluded that Jesus meant that they shouldn’t buy any bread from a Pharisee or Herodian because something was wrong with the yeast they used.

Why didn’t they ask Jesus what he meant? Perhaps they were afraid of looking foolish (that happens today, too!). Jesus scolded them for missing the point on something that they should have been able to understand. The disciples didn’t need to worry about bread or yeast. Jesus had just shown that he could make bread miraculously. They could remember facts (verses 19-20), but they didn’t always draw right conclusions from those facts. The miracle of the loaves was not just a way to save money — it had a deeper meaning that the disciples had failed to see (Mark 6:52). It symbolized the fact that Jesus is our source of life.

It is encouraging to know that Jesus’ own disciples didn’t always understand what he was teaching, because that gives us hope for ourselves, too, when we don’t always understand. Jesus continued to work with them, as he does with us. It shows that any “success” we have is the result of God, not our human ability to figure things out exactly.

Those first disciples were confused by Jesus’ death even though he told them about it more than once. But, like us, they could only absorb so much at a time. If you follow the flow of conversation at the Last Supper, you can see by their questions and frequent attempts to change the subject that the disciples did not understand what was going to happen. So Jesus told them, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth…and he will declare to you the things that are to come” (John 16:12-13).

After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples and instructed them for several weeks, and then he ascended to heaven. He told them “not to leave Jerusalem but to wait there for the promise of the Father. ‘This,’ he said, ‘is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now’” (Acts 1:4-5).

Jesus’ words were fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. The disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4), and through his guidance, they had a new understanding of what Jesus had done. Peter preached a sermon, urging his audience to repent, to believe in Jesus as their Messiah and to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (verse 38). Some 3,000 people were baptized and the church took a giant step forward.

From that day on, the Holy Spirit has continued to guide the church. The New Testament writers, led by the Holy Spirit, showed those first Christians how to live godly lives in the first century. But it did not happen instantly.

The book of Acts shows that it took time for the church to accept Gentiles into its midst, and it took longer for some people than for others. Paul’s letters show church members struggling with sin, and John’s letters describe division and doctrinal heresies. Even the last book to be written, the book of Revelation, describes serious shortcomings of some of the churches in Asia Minor.

The Holy Spirit is still working with us today, as we struggle to “get it right” while facing the challenges of our time. The New Testament gives us the core of our beliefs, and we teach those confidently, as best we can. Some additional doctrines are developed from the New Testament writings, and we teach those as best we can, too. But the real focus of our faith and the only object of our worship is our Triune God, not our theological statements.

We want to shape our theology as best we can to support our faith in and worship of the Father, Son and Spirit. By the Spirit and the Word, our theological understandings can be continually made holy, useful to God. Although we are not yet perfect, the children of God have been given the good and perfect gift of the Spirit, who will in the end enable all of us to share in Jesus’ own perfection!

Author: Joseph Tkach; edited by Michael Morrison in 2026