“Everyone who goes to medical school is smart, but everybody doesn’t make it through. And some that make it through don’t make good doctors.” — Nick Saban
I have always appreciated that observation.
It applies to far more than medicine.
Saban applied it to athletes of-course, but I believe the same is true of theology.
Not everyone who studies theology becomes a good theologian. In fact, some of the brightest minds can become the most dogmatic interpreters because intelligence alone is not what makes someone a careful reader of Scripture.
Knowledge is necessary.
Wisdom is indispensable.
Information Is Not Understanding
Anyone can memorize verses.
Anyone can quote Greek words.
Anyone can collect commentaries or earn degrees.
Those things may demonstrate education, but they do not necessarily produce good interpretation.
Good theology requires something deeper.
It requires the willingness to let Scripture correct us.
That sounds obvious until our favorite doctrine is the one being challenged.
Two Very Different Approaches
Over the years I have noticed two fundamentally different ways people approach Scripture.
The first begins with a conclusion.
“I know what I believe.”
The Bible then becomes a warehouse of supporting evidence. Verses are gathered, arranged, and presented as proof that the conclusion was correct all along.
This is proof-texting.
The second approach begins with a question.
“What did the biblical author intend to communicate?”
That requires context.
It requires historical setting.
It requires attention to language.
It requires understanding the audience, covenant, literary genre, and the flow of the argument.
Sometimes that process confirms what we already believed.
Sometimes it dismantles it completely.
The second approach is much slower.
It is also much more honest.
Details Matter
Many theological disagreements are not caused by a lack of intelligence.
They arise because people stop paying attention to details.
Who is being addressed?
Under which covenant?
What problem is the author actually solving?
How would the original audience have understood these words?
Is this descriptive or prescriptive?
Is this poetry, prophecy, narrative, wisdom literature, or an epistle?
Those questions are not academic trivia.
They are hermeneutics.
Ignoring them is like a surgeon ignoring anatomy because he already knows where to cut.
The Danger of Process Thinking
Many Christians develop a process-oriented way of reading Scripture.
The process looks something like this:
- Decide what is true.
- Find verses that appear to support it.
- Explain away verses that do not.
That process is remarkably efficient.
It is also remarkably dangerous.
It trains us to defend conclusions rather than pursue truth.
Soon, the goal is no longer understanding Scripture.
The goal becomes protecting our theological system.
At that point, facts become inconveniences instead of opportunities to learn.
Historical context becomes optional.
Hermeneutics become obstacles.
Questions become threats.
A Good Theologian Is Teachable
The best theologians I have encountered share one characteristic.
Humility.
Not false humility.
Real humility.
They are willing to say,
“I’ve never noticed that before.”
“I may have been wrong.”
“I need to rethink this.”
Those are not signs of weak faith.
They are signs of intellectual honesty.
Ironically, the people with the strongest convictions are often the ones most willing to test them.
They understand that truth has nothing to fear from investigation.
Our Loyalty Is to Christ, Not Our System
Every one of us has traditions.
Every one of us has assumptions.
Every one of us has inherited ways of reading Scripture.
The question is whether we love those traditions more than we love discovering what the biblical authors were actually saying.
The apostles never called believers to defend a theological system.
They called us to follow Christ.
Sometimes following Him means abandoning conclusions we once defended with absolute certainty.
That is not failure.
That is discipleship.
The measure of a theologian is not how many verses he can quote, how many books line his shelves, or how many debates he wins.
The measure is whether he loves truth enough to let Scripture speak—even when it costs him his favorite doctrine.
That is the difference between merely studying theology and becoming a good theologian.
“Examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good.” (1 Thessalonians 5:21)
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