Amen, too many forget the love and get hung up on doctrinal points. God is love, so right-on, the rest falls into place!
It's interesting to notice that doctrine is a record of the truth that Christians have discovered. What I am getting at, is that the truth was knowable before it was formed as doctrine, and that is the natural way to form knowledge. To learn from doctrine is the opposite approach to knowledge.
The reason doctrine comes about, is that people draw conclusions and summarise other various teachings and thoughts, and there comes to be disagreement for one reason or another between the conclusions they might draw or what those conclusions should be.
Also, when people preach and others hear them teaching what they have found, it makes sense to them, but because it isn't a knowledge of the truth that they had found through discovery, it is a thin layer of knowledge that has no real root. They have only absorbed the depth of knowledge that they had been subjected to for the duration of the sermon. Then when it seems appropriate to them, they might begin repeating their knowledge of that teaching to another person, and because their knowledge isn't deep, there enters some degradation of the authenticity of the knowledge in the message where they have to make assumptions about how the original investigator had arrived at that conclusion .. and people begin making wrong assumptions in absence of supervision, and people start getting the wrong ideas.
So because the knowledge degrades that way and quickly a community could become chaotic, it becomes necessary to establish precise words that are intended to produce uniformity of knowledge.
Even though the people agree to the words of the doctrine (because to not agree is more-or-less heretical), it doesn't guarantee that they have understood the real knowledge that the doctrine represents. In other words, they are only parroting doctrine for the sake of belonging. Not every person has the tenacity (and bravery), to step forward and say "you know, it's a bit embarrassing to say, but all this time while I have been here, I haven't really understood this bit .. and there's this scripture that I've read that doesn't seem to fit and it's niggling at me". It's sad but it happens.
And then they go on to be preachers and pastors without addressing the shortfall in their knowledge, and then they're trapped by their pride .. because nobody expects that a pastor should be asking their congregation to teach them! .. but their empty belief is still there and nobody is calling them out on it, and they are ignoring every time that The Holy Spirit's conviction comes against them for speaking empty words.. and they pretend that they know what they're talking about and that nobody can see through them (which, of course, if the congregation has elevated that one in their eyes, which is favouritism, then they have chosen blindness over discernment - yielding their authority to let him speak without question). .. But visitors come along and they are hearing things that they don't understand, and the preacher himself is not explaining it from a place of genuine knowledge, so it just doesn't hit home and they don't really get drawn in by the powerful word of truth.
It's sad, but it's a big part of the current problems we have in the churches.
Now, with all that having been said, and I feel to mention for OP's sake that Trinity doctrine is a knowledge that needs to be discovered .. there are no words that can make it sink in and become genuine knowledge without your mind going through a series of comprehensions and EXPERIENCING HIM, to really know The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit - three persons, all being God.
.. For Thess, I see what you wrote, and I am not sure what I can say about that, because I've largely forgotten what it was like to be confused about the truth all those years ago. But at the time that The Lord was drawing me back to faith, I remember that all the ideas I had about Christianity were a jumbled up chaos, that just seemed ridiculous, and I was a mocker of what I thought Christianity was. But then when I realised that I had a gap in my knowledge and I couldn't figure it out, I remember waking up that morning and crying to God "show me the truth!" .. and so that's what He did. As soon as I yielded my mind to Him, to consider that maybe the bible is true, and He spoke to me through a scripture that the Christians online gave to me, all those jumbled ideas suddenly fell into place and it all made perfect sense!
I was freaked out by the realisation of how wrong I had been, and I didn't know what to do about it, but the thing that is amazing is that it didn't take any time at all, not even a split second for it all to make sense - it happened instantly the moment I read that scripture that they had given me. So this is a good example of the difference between spirit and information in our knowledge.. where there was a sudden change of spirit the moment that I chose to accept The Word of God and receive what He wanted to say to me. Although, the information I had about the faith was still to grow (and I have since that time been led to question a lot of the doctrines that I had heard and believed through my childhood in the church) .. I have found through that too, that the state of sanctification (God's grace/salvation as in Hebrews 10:14), it doesn't rely upon the accuracy of our doctrine, but upon our disposition toward the truth. God begins to lead us from the place wherever we are when we come to Him, and if we will follow Him, then that is enough for His spirit to reside in us, and we are innocent, without blame in His sight, even if we are still finding out day by day that we need to grow and change and learn and repent.
The problem that cuts people off from that state of grace, and they become dis-graceful Christians, is sort of what I explained in this post, where they cannot come forward at The Holy Spirit's prompting and question those things they had always taken for granted. Whether it is pride or fear, or other temptations whatever it is that keeps them in that place of self-denial, it is the thorns of the parable in Matthew 13. What has happened is that they have not followed Him to where He is leading them (John 8:31-32, 2 Thessalonians 2:12). They have chosen to walk in the darkness, pretending that nobody can see through them, instead of walking in the light .. and as a necessary consequence, they also need to deceive themselves in order to think that God doesn't see their dishonesty, in that way becoming one who says in his heart "there is no God".
One of the greatest stumbling blocks for that, is when a person of low esteem (eg: a child) brings a word of conviction against one of greater rank (eg: a parent), and it happens to be uncomfortable for that one to accept the conviction as well as there being an opportunity for that one to dominate the messenger. In that way, they are getting cut off from the true vine of John 15, but it doesn't naturally occur to them that it has happened, because they have chosen to walk in the darkness, and those in the congregation who are carnal and not spiritual, they don't perceive the change, so they are all taken captive (see Jeremiah 13:17). .. and it doesn't even need to be so exemplified as that, but you can quickly find examples of Christians of similar rank competing with each other as James 4:1 and 1 Corinthians 3:3-4 show .. it is their flesh. They are unspiritual and they need someone to breathe the spirit of God back into them (which is especially challenging if they happen to be the king of the castle!).
