I still remember competing for giant-sized Hershey chocolate bars over Bible trivia when I was a kid. I had a Sunday School teacher that was great at getting us excited about the Bible and making it fun.

And when it came to Bible trivia, I was champion.

I knew almost all the Bible stories. I still remember how a lot of the parents loved me, because I seemed to be “mature” for my age. I was the “good kid.” …and I was, largely, in a legalistic sense. I didn’t drink, I didn’t have sex. But I was so full of sin in all kinds of other ways. I knew how a Christian should act, and I did a great job of acting that way… at least in the company of others.

Sword drills, Bible trivia, looking like a Christian… I was tops at all of those.

But while I did understand the general salvation story (my parents and church did a good job of ensuring I knew that Jesus died for my sins), I didn’t have a wider understanding of the Biblical narrative as a whole: I didn’t fully understand the Creation-Fall-Redemption-Consummation concept of the Bible; I didn’t understand that the entire Bible pointed toward Jesus, not just the four Gospels; I didn’t understand the Bible in a systematic theological context.

And thus when life happened… my understanding of the Bible, and of God, fell short… and things broke down.

An example:

I did not understand marriage from a theological point of view… I did not know the proper reasons, nor did I understand the representation of God’s relationship to His people that we find in this theological mirror called marriage. Thus, I did not handle the dating/choosing/marrying process well. I thought marriage was just something Christians did; I didn’t understand the appropriate ways to go about relationships and marriage, nor the dire consequences of doing so incorrectly. And sadly, I was married and divorced by 26.

Unfortunately, I fear that I am not alone. I fear that we have way too small a view of Scripture and way too light an understanding of the seriousness of a systematic understanding of the Bible. I mean, it’s great that our kids understand that Jonah was swallowed by a whale for not listening to God and got spit out because he prayed… but do they understand how it points to Christ and the Gospel? Do they understand that it’s not just a neat story, but a real event that happened to one of God’s prophets? And do they know how the book of Jonah ends?

Another example:

Have you heard about Christian teens that take part in oral sex or other similar activities but forgo intercourse because they think that’s what being a virgin means? Because it hasn’t been explained to them that it’s about the Spirit of the law, not the letter… that it’s about God, not just an act?

This is why we need systematic theology — a view of the Bible as a whole, including all its parts, understanding a full Biblical perspective — this is why we need to understand the overall narratives of the Bible and how the commands and stories fit with the Gospel and the Bible as a whole.

It’s bigger than just sex or stories of whales and prophets, it’s about God and His plan of redemption.

It’s bigger than all of us. It’s about Jesus and how the Scriptures testify about Him (John 5:39).

Instruct your children in theology… and understand it yourself… so that when that day comes, things won’t break down (Matthew 7:24-27).