“Orthodoxy, or right opinion, is, at best, a very slender part of religion. Though right tempers cannot subsist without right opinions, yet right opinions may subsist without right tempers. There may be a right opinion of God without either love or one right temper toward Him. Satan is proof of this.” (A.W. Tozer quoting John Wesley)
This is another shocking statement in certain circles. Many strive and spend all of their time earnestly trying to study theology in order to be orthodox. However, that is, “at best, a very slender part of religion.” As noted before, knowledge puffs up but love edifies (I Cor 8:1). All the orthodoxy in the world will not do a man any real good for eternity unless he loves God and his neighbor. “If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing” (I Cor 13:2). This should raze the concept of some that orthodoxy and study is all that there is to Christianity. Even if a person is able to know all mysteries and have all knowledge, without love there is no profit at all. Perhaps, then, what one needs to do is to study in order to love God and our neighbor.
However, some might interpret this to mean that one should get busy and work and then work some more as if Christianity consists in nothing but works. However, I Corinthians has something to say about that as well. “And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing” (I Cor 13:3). It is also true that the motives and intentions of the heart must be right or all the actions are being done for self and its glory. The Father can only be approached in the name of Christ (John 14:6) and any other method is not the way to the Father.
I think, therefore, that we can conclude that orthodoxy is not an end in itself and so it is but a slender part of religion. What is orthodoxy for if not for itself? The word “orthodox” simply refers to right teaching or correct doctrine. But isn’t that important and even vital? Yes, it is utterly vital. But if, as Tozer through Wesley tells us, Satan is correct in his doctrine, then surely one must have more than orthodoxy to be saved and something more than orthodoxy is what is the vital part of Christianity.
I would think that the Great Commandments should come to mind at this point. We must have right teachings about God in order to love God with all of our beings. The works that flow from self-love are not for God and not out of love for God. All that man does is to flow from love for God and the truth of the character and attributes of God is surely necessary for that. Good works, then, are utterly dependant on knowing and loving God. As noted above, Satan knows the truth about God but he hates God instead of loving Him. The orthodoxy of Satan is used by Satan to trick people into non-orthodoxy on the one hand and yet uses orthodoxy to lull people to sleep and cold hearts in their orthodoxy. Satan does not care if people are orthodox as long as they do not love God. Satan is concerned with keeping people from loving and honoring God so that God will not gain the glory. Whether people are orthodox or not Satan’s real goal is to keep them from loving and honoring God.
Another way to look at this is the definition that Jesus gave us of eternal life. “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). Orthodoxy is to know things about God, but eternal life is to know God. In one sense the start of the path to eternal life is through knowing about God, but the goal is not to know about God. Eternal life begins in this life and continues on into eternity and it consists in knowing God which is to love and be in communion with Him. John wrote the book of I John so that people could know if they had eternal life or not. “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life” (I John 5:13). He did not say that he had written the letter so that people could know that they were orthodox, but so that they could know if they had eternal life. One passage that he gave them and us is meant to teach us about what it means to have eternal life and what it means to know God. “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (I John 4:16). To know God is to know and believe the love that God has for His people. To know God is to abide in love and have God abide in that person. Surely, I would think, that in light of having the love of God in us and having God in us orthodoxy as such pales in comparison. No one has God dwelling in them apart from orthodoxy, but there may be plenty of orthodox people that do not have God and His love dwelling in them. Orthodoxy is but a slender part of being a Christian.
God Loves... Himself 
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