I have learned over the years that often people in churches are disinterested in learning what the Bible teaches beyond a certain point. Often, that certain point has a great deal to do with  a person’s comfort zone (particularly in the realm of Christian living) and often that certain point has to do with what a person finds to be overall “interesting.” Talk to people about David and Goliath, Joel, Jonah, or Lot’s daughters and people’s attention is grabbed, but challenge people on their sexual ethics or approach to worship and they turn you off. In this case, much like some people’s hearing, interest can be selective.

Interestingly, the word “disinterest” has two different uses. Commonly, we use it as a synonym for the word “uninterested.” If we don’t give a flying leap about a matter, we are not interested. We might say we are uninterested, but very often we simply say that we are disinterested in that particular topic.

Yet, in a more technical sense, while being “uninterested” in a topic means that you don’t find it interesting, being “disinterested” in a topic means that you are unbiased toward a given outcome. In other words, being a “disinterested judge” in a matter is actually a good thing and something toward which we should strive. It means that you are willing to listen to the argument at hand and if the facts of the argument demonstrate an error in your view, you will alter your view accordingly. 

What might it be like, were we able to conduct theological debates in disinterested ways? Often, when I have had theological debates with a person, I have laid out all of the Biblical reasoning behind a view and the response of the person would be to say, “Yes, but I prefer to do such and such (whatever that might be).” That response is an “interested” response because a person has gone into the matter with their own preconceptions that they are not willing to change. A disinterested response would be: “Wow, you are right about what the Bible teaches; I guess that my views on the matter do need to change.” 

It does not matter as to the topic that is at hand. We may be talking about Creation, the use of Psalmody in worship, the doctrine of Election, Abortion, or the nature of the human will, whether we are comfortable with a notion is irrelevant. The question that must be asked is, “Is this True and Right?” If it is true or right, it does not matter what our preferences may be nor does it matter what we might find comfortable. What matters is if we are aligning our understanding with God’s understanding as He reveals it in the Scriptures. Then, what matters is if we are aligning our practice with God’s revealed Truth. In the words of one contemporary philosopher, “nothing else matters.”

Historically, being disinterest was a mark of good philosophical thought, but it was also a hallmark of the pre-Reformation and the Reformation itself. Here were men like Waldo, Wycliffe, Huss, Zwingli, and Calvin who were disinterested in what Rome was teaching that God used their disinterest to drive them back to the Bible and the early church. Yet, somewhere in the western world we have become comfortable in our preconceptions and are often unwilling to have them challenged. 

In the Reformed world, this is essentially the notion of Ecclesia Reformata, Semper Reformanda (sometimes abbreviated simply as Semper Reformanda). If the church is reformed yet always reforming (what the phrase means), then on what basis is the church always reforming? Certainly it must not always be reforming to match the culture or the preferences of those in the church. No, the church is always reforming on the basis of a disinterested approach to theology as found in the Bible and as has always been understood by the True Christian church. Yet, the only way to get to that point of disinterest is to become interested in honoring God, loving what He loves, and obeying what He commands. That will have great consequences in the church. You may even discover that some groups that claim to be churches aren’t really churches at all — at least as defined by the Bible and the “faith that was once and for all time handed down to the saints.” No, there will be upheaval in the church if people truly approached theology and practice with a disinterested demeanor. But, it would also mean reformation in the church and perhaps our God will honor that disinterested reformation with revival.