Orthodoxy AND orthopraxy
I’ve written here repeatedly about Jesus’ powerful teaching in John 15, where He says, “I am the vine, you (all) are the branches, and My Father is the vinedresser… Abide in Me, as I Abide in you… Apart from Me you can do nothing.”
Orthodoxy – yes
Orthodoxy refers to right thinking: beliefs that align with the witness of the whole Bible. John 15 is a Trinitarian passage. Jesus the Vine is the Son. The Father is the vinedresser. And how we abide in Him and He in us? Through the Holy Spirit. Just like John 17 is Jesus’ prayer that the same Community (common unity) enjoyed within the Godhead – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – that we as the Body of Christ on earth would experience that same level of divine love. The word Trinity isn’t in the Bible. But the concept is all through the Bible. Trinity is just a word meaning three-in-one to reflect the Biblical witness in a single word or concept.
We could keep reading John 15 from an orthodoxy perspective and find great riches. We can see that God is sovereign, omniscient, tender, wise, and so forth.
Do we need orthodoxy? Absolutely. Without it, the old quip rings true: God made us in His image, and we’ve been returning the favor ever since. We remake god into something we’d like – thereby in effect staging a coup and declaring ourselves God, settling into the throne like we own it.
Orthopraxy – yes
Orthopraxy refers to right acting: thoughts, words, and deeds that accurately reflect our God-given identity as sons and daughters of the King. If we read the Bible only in search of orthodoxy, ignoring orthopraxy… well, our theology isn’t very good. In fact, we would call that heresy, because mind and body can’t be separated. Gnosticism tried, and was deemed heresy.
But that isn’t the biggest problem. We can recognize God’s sovereignty and be no different than the demons. We miss the good stuff if Truth gets stuck in our head. If I correctly fill in the blank, “Apart from Jesus we can do _______”, with “nothing” but then immediately proceed to set my own course, my wrong actions reveal wrong thinking, too. As a friend of mine likes to say, “if we build it in our own strength, we’ll have to maintain it in our own strength.” If we only aim for what we’re capable of on our own, we’ll aim WAY too low. As my leadership coach told me this morning, “If I’m the smartest person in the room, I’m in the wrong room.”
Joy flows from… both!
A few verses later in John 15, Jesus says, “I’ve told you these things so that you will be filled with My joy… overflowing joy.” Let’s not miss that! Joy flows where orthodoxy meets orthopraxy. When we fall short in our actions, through what we’ve done or what we’ve left undone, right thinking about God’s steadfast love and mercy get us back on track again.
Dave Drum, Founder J17 Ministries
