Biblical theology

It’s important! When actual counseling situations arise - as they have - and you need to explain what Jesus means when he’ll separate the wheat from the tares or goats from the sheep, what system of biblical narrative could you offer in that moment? The one that makes arbitrary xyz fruit the underpinning of one’s standing with God? Or the one that stresses preaching the truth of the gospel to believer and nonbeliever with equal, unyielding emphasis?

These are the implications of one’s biblical theology. Or a new believer wants to know the significance and purpose of the sacraments, i.e., baptism and the Lord’s supper. Your understanding of the covenants, the continuity or newness of them, will let them know how each sacrament edifies the believer and community of believers. Extremely practical stuff.

Don’t stop at systematic theology. Know the Bible as one huge chunk: how is the gospel (the coming kingdom of God) heralded throughout the ages? Doing so, at the very least, will edify your private worship of God as one whose sovereign hand cannot be hindered in blessing his people. And the best thing you can do for your church is increase your private worship.

Specifically, you can start at any number of systematic buckets (end-times, sacraments, covenants) and compare each biblical theologies’ (covenantal or dispensational) treatment against the Bible’s own hermeneutic (hinted in John 5:39, Luke 24:27). Personally, the hermeneutical lens I prescribe to is the one that magnifies the Father’s sovereignty, Christ’s sufficiency, and the spirit’s consistent, unthwarted execution of a masterful redemptive plan.