The personal factor is one of the most striking distinctives of the Christian faith. Most other religions develop a philosophy or a belief system, or perhaps a lifestyle, as the ultimate guide, placing an abstract at the center of the faith, rather than a relationship.

Unfortunately, Christians seem to have wanted to imitate this approach, too often turning Christianity into a set of doctrines to be followed, or perhaps with nobler intent, formulating a body of guiding principles.

Although guiding doctrine and principles are good in their own ways, neither really represents what Christianity is about. At its heart, our faith is based on a Person, not an abstract idea. Two key texts point out its intensely personal nature. The first is John 14:6. Jesus doesn’t say that he has the Way, the Truth and the Life, or that he knows the Way the Truth and the Life. He says that he is the Way, Truth and Life. Those things are an extension of him. I can think of no other religion that states that truth or life or the way is a person. Usually they are philosophies expounded by a person.

The second text is 1 John 4:16; God is love. Again, this text doesn’t say that God is loving, that love is one of God’s qualities. It goes further than that, insisting that God is love itself, and that love is God himself. The text denies the status of love as an abstract concept, with facets explainable by various Greek words that capture its nuances. Not that the Greek is misleading about some of love’s qualities; it is just that love is so much more than philos, eros, agape, and company. Love is a Person.

Essentially, this approach denies the separation of knowledge and relationship. In God’s system, we only truly know when we are in relationship with him. By his definition, knowing a body of doctrine without a relationship with the God of the doctrine is in fact ignorance.

For many years our modernist, scientific culture led us to believe that we could study things objectively, and that we could only truly understand things from the outside. This was reflected in religion by the development of systematic theology and a tendency to emphasize knowledge at the expense of treating each other with grace and understanding. Fortunately, post modernist culture is calling Christians back to relationship. Hopefully, we can achieve that goal without abandoning the value of knowledge and systematic theology, which are useful as guides to fuller relationships.

When it comes to outreach, it is clear then that our task is to lead people to a relationship with Jesus. Doctrine and theology are not ends in themselves, but the means to the end. And clearly, if relationship is at the heart of truly knowing God, we must form relationships with those we seek to influence. If God is love, then let us be like him.

Finally, let me recommend Parker J. Palmer’s wonderful little book To Know as We are Known, which explores some of these ideas in greater detail.

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