Theology is Not Optional: What You Believe About God Changes Everything
““What comes into our mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us.””
An All Too Familiar Cry
“I can’t believe that God would let this happen to me.”
If you have walked with people in moments of crisis—whether in hospital waiting rooms, counseling offices, or on late-night phone calls—you have probably heard words like these. Mature, godly Christians cry out and wonder why God would let them face such difficult circumstances. Scripture itself records the same lament: Job groaned, “Why did I not die at birth?” (Job 3:11), and Moses asked, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant?” (Num. 11:11). Even the great King David implored, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” (Ps. 13:1). In the darkest of days, prayers like these are not unusual for Christians.
“The most tragic moments of our life reveal a deep truth about us: what we believe about God shapes the way we live.”
What intrigues me most is when these words come from people who don’t attend church or claim to be Christians—people who live as if there is no God. In a single sentence, an entire worldview is exposed, a theology is revealed. They reveal their subconscious belief in a God who exists, who is powerful, who knows their situation, and who should always protect them from their suffering. When reality does not match this expectation, they are left disillusioned
This reaction to suffering is not random—it is the fruit of what someone believes, or misbelieves, about God. The most tragic moments of our life reveal a deep truth about us: what we believe about God shapes the way we live.
Everyone is a Theologian
The word theology simply means “the study of God.” It comes from two Greek words: theos (God) and logos (word, idea, or reason). Put them together and you get theology, or the study of God.
For many, “theology” calls to mind dusty seminary libraries or a pastor in his study. But, in the broadest sense, theology is simply what you believe about God. This means that every person—from the hardened skeptic to the faithful believer of 50 years—has a theology.
Where does this theology come from? Most people never stop to ask. Their theology is formed unconsciously, drawing from a mix of sources:
Personal Experience & Emotions: We interpret God through the lens of our own experiences and emotions. If life has been good, we imagine him as kind and caring. If life has been hard, we see him as indifferent or cruel. We like to think of ourselves as rational, logical creatures, but emotion colors our thoughts about God more than we realize.
Cultural Narratives: Music, movies, books, podcasts, YouTube videos, and social media all teach us ideas about who God is—or whether he exists at all. Over time, the stories we consume shape our beliefs and thoughts about God.
Religious Tradition: Most people inherit a set of beliefs—either explicitly or implicitly—from their family or religious background. Often these beliefs are inherited without examination.
Peers and Influences: Friends, teachers, and online voices communicate theological ideas constantly, usually without realizing it.
We are like stones shaped by a river. Whether we realize it or not, the waters of culture, emotion, tradition, and influence are shaping what we believe about God. We cannot help but have a theology. You cannot help but be a theologian. The only question is whether your theology reflects reality or distorts it.
Theology Shapes Life
Once you recognize that everyone has a theology, the question is, why does theology matter? Because it determines how we worship, how we make moral choices, and how we endure trials.
Tozer puts it well:
A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb the whole structure must sooner or later collapse. I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God.1
From the beginning of Scripture, we see this truth. In Genesis 3, the first sin began with a lie about God. Adam and Eve believed the serpent’s question—“Did God really say?”—and doubted God’s goodness and truthfulness. Wrong belief led to wrong behavior.
“Theology determines how we worship, how we make moral choices, and how we endure trials.”
Consider the young mother with a messy house and a screaming toddler, overwhelmed by a long day. Her response flows from her theology. If she believes God values her work in the home and is a perfect model of patient love, she is more likely to respond with gentleness. If she believes he is distant or uninterested, frustration will likely follow.
Or, think of the man at work who is pressured to cut corners. If he believes God values integrity and provides for those who trust him, he will refuse to compromise—even at great personal cost. If he thinks that God is detached from his daily life or powerless to provide, compromise becomes more and more tempting.
Right thinking about God produces right living.
Theology Shapes Worship
Isaiah records God’s purpose for his people: “The people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise” (Isa. 43:21). We were created to worship God. Yet, in our fallen state, our worship is corrupted. Many people even deceive themselves into thinking that they worship nothing, calling themselves “spiritual but not religious” or identifying as religious “nones.” But everyone worships something. The question is not if you worship, but who or what you worship.
What do you sacrifice for? Where do you run for comfort? What can you not live without? Where do your thoughts wander when you are free to think about anything? Your answers help reveal the object of your devotion.
“ In our day, idolatry hides behind more sophisticated masks—social ideologies, the cult of science, the worship of autonomy, and a thousand other modern altars that promise freedom but enslave the soul. The forms have changed, but the pattern remains the same: false beliefs about God lead to false worship of God.”
Paul makes the connection between theology and worship clear: “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Rom. 1:25). Wrong belief and wrong worship go hand in hand.
In Paul’s day, idolatry involved carved statues and pagan gods. In our day, it hides behind more sophisticated masks—social ideologies, the cult of science, the worship of autonomy, and a thousand other modern altars that promise freedom but enslave the soul. The forms have changed, but the pattern remains the same: false beliefs about God lead to false worship of God.
Right worship rests on right belief. Only when we know God as he is—not as we imagine him—will our worship be true.
Theology Shapes Morality
Every moral decision flows from what we believe about God. There are many different theories of morality and ethics, but they all ultimately rest on beliefs about God or about the ultimate reality. A person who believes in the God of Scripture sees morality as objective and rooted in his holy character. Even those who deny God’s existence still make moral claims, but their theology cannot sustain them. If there is no holy God, why pursue holiness? If there is no just judge, why pursue justice?
When people reject a biblical view of God, their morality cannot hold together. If morality is reduced to nothing more than social consensus, it loses any binding authority and is subject to change at any moment. By contrast, the Christian conviction that every person is made in God’s image grounds morality in something unchanging. Even atheists who affirm moral values do so in contradiction with their stated beliefs, borrowing moral categories such as justice, dignity, and human worth that only make sense if God exists.
The same is true in daily life. A politician who believes he answers to no one will justify corruption to keep control. A teenager who believes that pleasure is ultimate will give in to temptation to satisfy his desires. But the Christian who believes that God is holy, present, and worthy of obedience will pursue honesty, purity, and faithfulness even when it costs them.
Right thinking about God is the only lasting foundation for morality.
Theology Shapes Public Life
A virtuous society is only possible when morality is rooted in truth about God. In America today, so many take this for granted. Even when not explicitly Christian, much of Western civilization operates on the borrowed capital of a Christian moral framework, using concepts like human dignity, justice, honesty, and responsibility that only make sense if people are made in God’s image and accountable to him.
Once a culture abandons that foundation, the virtues it once assumed cannot survive for long. If there is no holy God, holiness becomes unnecessary. If there is no just judge, then justice becomes a matter of opinion. If there is no creator, human life has no inherent worth. Public life cannot escape theology. When a nation denies the truth about God, its moral foundations inevitably begin to crumble.
History is full of examples,2 but we can see this clearly in our own time. Western nations, like the United States, once shaped by Christian values, now debate even the most basic questions of life—questions about marriage, gender, and the value of unborn life. These are not merely political disputes; they are theological ones. When the truth about God is rejected, the virtues of justice, dignity, and responsibility lose their moral anchor, and all other truth claims are soon undermined.
A culture may echo Christian morality for a time, but eventually the rotten foundations give way and what once seemed secure collapses.
Why Getting God Right Matters
“The most important task before us is not simply to think about God, but to think about him rightly. The only way we can do that is to go to the source where God has spoken: the Bible.”
Tozer’s insight still stands: “What comes into our mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” Every person is a theologian, and our theology shapes our worship, our morality, and our public life.
The question is not whether you have a theology, but whether your theology is accurate. Wrong thoughts about God lead to disordered lives—confusion in our hearts, brokenness in our homes, weakness in our churches, and instability in our culture. Right thoughts about God bring peace in hardship, purpose in families, strength in the church, and hope for what lies ahead.
That is why the most important task before us is not simply to think about God, but to think about him rightly. The only way we can do that is to go to the source where God has spoken: the Bible.
1A.W. Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1978), 2.
2The fall of Rome illustrates how decadence and paganism corroded civic virtue; the French Revolution demonstrates how the rejection of God led to chaos, bloodshed, and tyranny; Nazi Germany shows how a pseudo-religious racial ideology justified genocide; the Soviet Union reveals how atheistic communism led to mass oppression and death; and Mao’s Cultural Revolution in China demonstrates how an explicitly atheistic regime devalued human life on an unimaginable scale. There are more examples, but these should suffice to prove the point.
Drew O’Connell
Director of Admissions
Drew was born and raised in Orange County and has attended Compass Bible Church for over 15 years. In 2018, God saved him while he was a student in the junior high ministry. He is currently enrolled at Boyce College and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he is pursuing his Bachelor of Arts in Biblical and Theological Studies and Master of Divinity.
