Why Study Doctrine, Free Course, Chapter 4
Why Study Doctrine, Free Course, Chapter 4
Teaching/Studying Bible Doctrine Is A Noble Activity
All of us are capable of a full range of activities from the most wicked to the most sacred. Each of us also has an inbuilt scale using which we measure our own [and also other’s] activities. Everyone tries to do things that are high on this scale of reckoning. However, often this scale is a man-made one, and those who follow it end up elevating things of no value. What looks noble to such a person is often worthless in God’s eyes.
The Word of God has its own scale to assess human activities. Only adapting this scale will ensure that we hold in high esteem those things which God also esteems as high. Going by this standard, “nobility” is ascribed to people who devote themselves to careful study of the Scriptures. In Acts 17: 11 we read, “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so”.
Those in our generation who promote the slogan “What we need is life, not doctrine” have somehow got their spiritual scales totally confused. They deprecate an activity labeled as “noble” by the Holy Spirit Himself, and end up elevating substitutes that are of no value without the “noble” activity of studying doctrine. It is the classic case of exchanging one’s divinely ordained birthright for just a humanly cooked pot of morsel.
The nobility of teaching doctrine is emphasized in another place in the Scripture in an interesting way. In I Timothy 5:17 we read, “Let the elders that rule well be counted worth of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine”. Everyone automatically knows the first part of this verse that those who rule well need to be respected because their good rule is the result of above-average commitment and labor. However, even among these committed men, those who handle and teach the word and doctrine need to be given yet more respect. Obviously, teaching the word and doctrine is the highest call in a local church because such a person, through consistent teaching of the doctrine builds up and strengthens the church as well as the believers.
Teaching the word and doctrine, and studying the word and doctrine are most noble activities, and no believer in Christ should ever disregard it.
Continued Study And Teaching Of Scriptures Is A Divine Command: The Holy Scriptures speak to us in many ways. These include commands, warnings, models, general principles, and options. Of these five categories of instructions, commands are the strongest and they are binding upon all believers. No exceptions are permitted.
Of the many binding commandments given to New Testament believers, we find one in I Timothy 4:14 where God’s messenger says, “Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine”. Obviously study and teaching of the doctrines is such an essential activity that the Scripture orders the believers to make this a regular, repetitive, and ongoing activity. It is a command from God, and there is to be no exception.
Lord Jesus once observed that though man is basically evil, his evil nature is not usually manifested in a father-children relationship. Even the most evil people try to give only the best to their children. Then the Lord went on to remind that if basically evil humans are so caring and benevolent to their children, the Loving God and Father is surely caring and benevolent to His children beyond imagination. Since it is this loving Father and God who orders His children to make doctrine a regular part of their lives, we can rest assured that this is definitely for our good now and also for eternity. Dare any one of us break this command, speak against it, or even ignore it.
Summary: We who live centuries away from Reformation have switched the order and importance of many things in our mental lists, and one of these is seen in the widespread uprising against doctrine and arguments in favor of life at the expense of doctrine. The situation has been made worse through the teaching ministry of many men for whom teaching doctrines is not a love-affair.
Just as unprepared, unimaginative and uncommunicative teachers ruin the charm of even the most interesting subject, filling the minds of students with dread just at the mention of that subject, careless and unprepared Bible teachers have created an ongoing aversion to the teaching of “doctrine”. However, doctrinal teaching does not have to be like that. In the hands of skilled teachers it becomes an object of passionate love from Bible students.
As believers we need to give due attention to studying doctrines because only a grounding in Bible Doctrine leads to a life acceptable to man and God. Our conversation needs to be salted by a doctrinal outlook to life and death. Our walk needs to be influenced by our scriptural knowledge of what we are. Studying and teaching doctrine is a noble activity. What’s more God Himself commands all believers to make study of Doctrine an essential and regular part of their lives.
Why Study Doctrine, Free Course, Chapter 4
Teaching/Studying Bible Doctrine Is A Noble Activity
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