Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?
“Do Not Be Naive About What You Believe” — Why Theology Matters for People of Faith
www.rratedreligion.com
When I say “Do not be naive about what you believe,” I’m not just offering a clever tagline — I’m giving a necessary warning, especially to those who believe the Bible is the inspired word of God. Faith is too serious, too costly, and too powerful to be built on vague ideas, childhood memories, or emotional highs. If you claim that the Bible is sacred, you must take seriously the call to understand who the God of the Bible really is — and what He actually demands of you.
Faith Without Knowledge is Fragile
Many Christians, Jews, and others who honor the Bible would never knowingly build their house on sand — yet too many build their faith on half-truths and misunderstandings. They inherit ideas about God without testing them, without studying them, and without wrestling with the deeper meanings behind Scripture. The result? Shallow faith, easily broken when life gets hard.
Real faith demands real education. It demands effort, sacrifice, and the humility to admit that we don’t know everything — and that sometimes, what we were taught needs to be challenged by the raw, often uncomfortable realities of the text itself.
Theology is Not Optional
If you call yourself a believer but don’t know the theology of your own faith, you’re standing in dangerous territory. It’s like claiming allegiance to a kingdom without knowing the king’s laws — or worse, inventing your own rules and hoping they please the king anyway.
Theology isn’t a dry academic exercise; it’s about knowing the character, promises, commands, and heart of the God you claim to follow. It’s about understanding why He acts the way He does in Scripture — why He blesses, why He judges, why He commands loyalty, sacrifice, and holiness. Without this knowledge, you risk believing in a God shaped by your own image and comfort rather than the God revealed through Scripture.
Sacrifice is at the Heart of Faith
Believing in the God of the Bible isn’t supposed to be easy. It’s not supposed to make you comfortable. It’s supposed to change you — to demand something from you. Abraham was called to leave his home. Moses was called to lead a stubborn people. Jesus’ disciples were called to lose their lives for His sake.
Today, believers are called to sacrifice too: time, comfort, pride, convenience, sometimes even reputation or relationships. One of the greatest sacrifices we can make is the willingness to let God change our minds, deepen our understanding, and correct our errors. That starts with refusing to be naive. That starts with learning.
Know What You Believe — and Why
At R-Rated Religion, we dive into the hard parts of faith: the parts that polite church conversations avoid, the parts that demand maturity, courage, and honesty. If you believe the Bible is inspired, then treat it with the reverence it deserves. Study it. Wrestle with it. Understand the God who speaks through it.
Don’t be naive. Be bold, be educated, be faithful.
Your soul depends on it.
Let’s cut the nonsense:
If you believe the Bible is the inspired word of God, then you are claiming allegiance to something deadly serious. It’s not a Hallmark movie. It’s not a cozy weekend hobby. It’s a bloody, history-shaping, soul-demanding reality.
And too many believers are completely naive about the faith they claim to live by.
Ignorance is a Luxury You Can’t Afford
You wouldn’t sign a legal contract without reading it. You wouldn’t take a bullet for a cause you barely understood. Yet millions say, “I believe in God,” and have no clue what that actually means — what that belief demands of them, what it costs, and what it will cost others if they get it wrong.
The Bible is not a safe book. God is not a safe God. If you think faith is just about feeling good, getting into heaven, and posting Bible quotes with flowers on Instagram, you’ve been lied to.
Theology matters. Your life depends on it. Eternity depends on it.
Faith Without Sweat Is a Lie
Real faith is not handed to you. It’s built — day after day — by sacrifice, by study, by breaking and bleeding through hard truths.
The God of the Bible doesn’t want your laziness. He doesn’t want your empty words. He demands your mind, your loyalty, your life.
You need to know:
- Who you are worshiping.
- What He has actually said — not just what you wish He said.
- How He deals with people who lie about Him.
- What kind of obedience He actually requires.
And you can’t know those things without digging deep into the Word, into theology, into the raw and uncomfortable realities that most religious people are too scared to touch.
This is Grown-Up Faith
Childish faith will crumble when the world hits you hard — and it will. If you don’t have the guts to understand your God, your faith will be the first thing you abandon when suffering or temptation come knocking.
R-Rated Religion is for people who are done playing pretend. It’s for those who know that the Bible is not G-rated, and neither is real faith. It’s messy, violent, demanding — and absolutely worth it.
But only if you stop being naive.
Only if you sacrifice your comfort to truly know the God you claim to serve.
If you’re serious about believing the Bible is God’s word, it’s time to grow up, read deeply, and learn who you’re dealing with.
Your life — and more than your life — depends on it.
R-Rated Religion 