Why Study Doctrine, Free Course, Chapter 3
Why Study Doctrine, Free Course, Chapter 3
Only Doctrines Provides The Foundation
High-rise buildings in cosmopolitan towns often resemble each other outwardly. However, come an earthquake and only few of them survive. Those that still stand after the quake is over do so because of their good foundation and strong structure. The same is it with the Christian life.
In Titus 1:9 God says, "Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers". In 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17 the Holy Spirit says, "All scripture is given by the inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God might be mature, thoroughly furnished unto all good works".
In a generation that proclaims ‘what we need is life and not doctrine’ people tend to forget that it is the strong foundation of doctrine alone that makes a person strong enough in this wicked world to resist the urge for evil and to do good works. Unless there is a strong foundation, a building cannot rise much. Unless there is a strong foundation of doctrine, nobody can live a Holy Life.
Only Doctrine Leads to Acceptable Life: The repetition of the contemporary slogan ‘we need life, not doctrine has created an illusion in the minds of most people that life and doctrine are independent of each other. They feel that a holy and acceptable life is possible without doctrine. This is a serious fallacy.
If a holy and acceptable life is possible without doctrine, then it appears that one does not even have to be a Christian to lead a holy life. After all people of all religions [and even atheists] love holy life and exhort people to live that way. It is not surprising that in a generation that claims that it is life and not doctrine, this feeling now sweeps over Christians who often claim that ‘non Christians are better than Christians’. Some of them have even gone to the level of saying that all good Non Christians are saved while the salvation of many born-again Christians is debatable. Obviously, negating doctrine is a slippery slope, and it will eventually lead the Christian to a mental state where he will reject all the fundamentals of faith in favor of an emotion filled-dominated life that gives him a nice feeling. He fails to realize that emotion devoid of intellect is no different from intoxication.
In 1 Timothy 4:16 God says, "Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them; for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee". Obviously, the progressive work of sanctification in one’s own life, and also in the lives of others through a believer’s life, needs taking care of doctrine. There is going to be no ongoing sanctification (’save thyself’) without taking heed of doctrine. This is much mote emphatically indicated in 2 Timothy 2:15 where we read, ’study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth’, obviously, while ‘life’ is need to please God, doctrine is important to get God’s approval. No mature believer can ignore doctrine, and no believer who ignores doctrine can claim to be mature, and there is no approval anyway without commitment to doctrine.
Our Conversation Needs to be Influenced By Doctrine: People talk, and all kinds of people talk on all kinds of subjects. However, the conversation of God’s children need to be different. Not that believers need to talk in a holier-than-thou language, nor that they need to avoid the pleasure of healthy and free conversation. Nothing legalistic like that. However, right from the time God gave the Law to mankind, profanity and blasphemy was forbidden. God’s children were also asked to savor their words with salt so that the hearers would be blessed. The Scripture in Colossians 4:6 says, "Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man". They were supposed to comfort and encourage others. In 1Thessalonians 5:11 the Spirit of God says, " Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do". Fathers were specifically instructed to weave a spiritual outlook and also spiritual instruction in their everyday conversation whether at home or abroad.
The New Testament adds to this a stipulation that the conversation of believers should definitely have a doctrinal component to it. In Titus 2:1 we read, "But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine". Not that our speech should be loaded with theological jargon, but that things we speak and discuss in the long run should lead people into truth. This is possible if our conversation reflects an optimism and hope based upon Roman 8:28, when we have some good words to share with any and every person, irrespective of who and what he is, and irrespective of what he is facing in life. Even comforting each other was required to have a strong doctrinal component. In 1Thessalonians 4:18 we read, "Wherefore comfort one another with these words", that is, comfort with the doctrinal discussion which preceded that verse.
There is a reason for this. Our conversation can become flavored with optimism and can reflect a divine outlook to life and living only if we grasp the great doctrines related to Grace, Redemption, Security, Divine Providence, and Separation. We will have something to offer them only if we grasp the doctrines of God’s love and provision; how He grants sun and rain to all. A person who has grasped the meaning and depth of John 3:16 will always be able to offer hope to the most distressed person. That is one way of speaking things which become sound doctrine. Only a thorough grasp of the fundamental doctrines and their implications will help believers to integrate doctrines in a non-obstructive way in their conversation.
Conversely, a person who takes the ‘life but not doctrine’ will eventually have only human-wisdom to share with others. This will in no way be different from today’s New Age wisdom that is available in all kinds of self-help books. And this we do see in the writings and messages of those who have abandoned doctrine.
Why Study Doctrine, Free Course, Chapter 3
Only Doctrines Provides The Foundation
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