Lesson 6: Using The Four Branches of Theology
Practical Theology
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Definition
The fourth and final branch of theology is practical theology. (It is sometimes called “pastoral” or “applied theology.”)
prac•ti•cal the•ol•o•gy noun
“Practical theology applies the text to yourself, the church, and the world by answering the question ‘How should we then live?’”¹
Practical theology has a personal focus. It takes a passage of Scripture and studies it in the light of its effect on our thinking, feeling, and acting.
Principle: Interpret the Bible for obedience. Apply a text to the way you should think, feel, and act.
How to Do Practical Theology: Plan to Obey
If you have studied a passage of Scripture in great detail (even using biblical, systematic, and historical theology) and yet it does not affect the way you live, your work was useless! Notice how God describes his requirement for our lives:
Mankind, he has told each of you what is good and what it is the Lord requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God. —Micah 6:8 (CSB)
The Lord doesn’t merely require us to know his Word intellectually. Knowing his Word is essential: you have to know what Micah 6:8 says if you‘re going to obey it! But the Lord also requires us to love and to live rightly: “to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God.” So knowledge must lead to application.
Listen to this warning from J.I. Packer:
We need to ask ourselves: what is my ultimate aim and object in occupying my mind with these things? What do I intend to do with my knowledge about God once I have got it? For the fact that we have to face is this: that if we pursue theological knowledge for its own sake, it is bound to go bad on us. It will make us proud and conceited… [T]o approach Bible study with no higher a motive than a desire to know all the answers, is the direct route to a state of self-satisfied self-deception. We need to guard our hearts against such an attitude, and pray to be kept from it. —J.I. Packer, Knowing God, 18 (emphasis mine).
When we read the Bible, we need to consciously apply it to our head, our heart, and our hands with the help of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Biblical Example
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. —Galatians 5:1
Let’s consider how Paul employs practical theology in Galatians. Paul first defends his apostleship (Galatians 1–2) and his gospel (3:1–4:11). Then he calls his readers to respond (4:12–6:10) by urging them to live in freedom from being under the Mosaic Law (4:12–5:1), to resist the dangerous message of bondage (5:2–12), and to live out freedom in the Spirit (5:13–6:10).²
Paul does so because his gospel came directly from Jesus. If this is true, then the Galatians must think, feel, and act differently because Jesus is Lord! They must “stand firm” against the false teachers and not accept circumcision (5:1). They must obey “the truth” (5:7). They must “walk by the Spirit” (5:16) instead of fulfilling sinful desires. Practical theology obeys and applies the Bible. (Lesson 9 focuses on applying the Bible.)
Your Turn
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. —Deuteronomy 6:4–9
Reread Deuteronomy 6:4–9 again slowly, and apply its truth in three ways to your life:
Head: How should Deut 6:4-9 change the way you think?
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Heart: How should Deut 6:4-9 change the way you feel?
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Hands: How should Deut 6:4-9 change the way you act?
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Resources
10 Things You Should Know about Sound Doctrine, by Bobby JamiesonTen important facts to help you understand and pursue sound doctrine
Free Courses on Practical Theology, from The Gospel CoalitionEleven courses on practical theology by authors such as Andreas Köstenberger