Romans says that the carnal mind is at war with God. It is an enemy with God. Paul was talking to believers. He tucks it in right between no condemnation and everlasting love that e cna't be separated from, but nevertheless its in there. He follows that up renewing the mind a few chapters later as well as in other epistles. Furthermore, the apostles (Paul included) warn many times against impure and unsound doctrines. This seems like a big deal to God.
In many Christian circles today there is the claim that we need to worry more about encountering God than we do proper theology. 2 Timothy 3:7 says 5-7 says, "having a form of Godliness but denying its power...always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth." Jesus condemned the Pharisees for knowing the scriptures and missing Him. The thinking goes that He is more concerned with us finding Him than he is about proper thoughts about Him. Perhaps thats true, but I disagree with the mutual exclusivity in that line of thinking.
A.W. Tozer states that "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us." I think he was on to something. Our thoughts about something or more importantly about someone create lenses that we see them through. If we believe someone is a liar for example, we will be much less trusting of them. We naturally guard our thoughts and opinions from gossipers for fear of what will spread like wildfires. Our thoughts and lenses guide our encounters. It is the same with Jesus. We can't fully know Him, embrace Him or trust Him without the proper thoughts of Him.
Have you ever met someone who was praying against Gods will and then they wonder why He didn't answer. Don't get me wrong, my thoughts and attitudes towards God aren't perfect, but they aren't an excuse to not pursue proper thoughts and theology either.
The bottom line is our theology is important because in influences our encounters.
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