Godly Doctrine

The other day, my 17-year-old son and I were bouncing down the road in his old Ford pickup. We were talking about life, work and ministry, and he mentioned some of his friends were discouraged from talking to him by their church elders out of concern that he would lead them down a road that they doctrinally disagreed with. While my son was speaking, something seemed to dawn on him as he looked at me and said, “You’ve never discouraged me from studying other people’s doctrines.” I laughed as I remembered having the same discussion at 17 with my own dad. I told my son the same thing my dad told me all those years ago: “If you’re walking your pet lion and you pass somebody else walking their pet monkey and they begin to tell you that their monkey could beat up your lion…you don’t argue—you just unleash the lion.” Truth is its own defense. It isn’t afraid of being exposed, and it does not need to be protected. In Acts chapter 5, the Pharisees tell Peter to stop teaching about Jesus because it made them look guilty. Peter’s response said it all: We ought to obey God rather than men, so we’ll keep shouting the truth from every rooftop. The Pharisees’ answer was not unexpected: they took counsel to kill the disciples and hide the truth.
You see, the Pharisees knew that true doctrine would set you free…free from the bondage of the doctrines of men.
Somehow, doctrine has become a scary word. When we hear it, we begin to emotionally prepare ourselves to be divided from dear friends or family. It sometimes seems that doctrine has been relegated to the realm of old men who are so obstinately certain in their own infallibility that they will happily use it as a spiritual cudgel to divide us. Doctrine is a tool to push away other sheep from “their sheep” by disagreeing over a word or a phrase that would otherwise look silly if it was outside of a very narrow scope of devotees. This can be discouraging…but Paul himself said to Timothy, “Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine” (I Timothy 4:13).
Doctrine is, by its very nature, divisive. As we define our doctrine, carefully parsing what is true and what is a lie, we also inadvertently exclude people from the delineated scope of faith that we have limited ourselves to. Because of this, there is a common reticence to clearly define and discuss our own belief system. In some places, this has become so pervasive that the congregation simply refuses to believe anything. Universalism is the belief that nothing is true or sacred and that it is the pursuit of “truth” by the individual that is the mechanism of sanctification, rather than the truth itself. At the same time, if we veer off in the other direction, there is dogma so stringent that its followers feel a sense of piety and haughtiness, simply because they’ve excluded everyone else.
Excluding everyone from your ever shrinking circle doesn’t necessarily make you special…sometimes, it just makes you a jerk.
In light of this, the question then becomes: How do we hold the truth in love? How do we handle the exclusionary nature of doctrine with humility and grace? After all, Jesus didn’t say, “They’ll know you’re my disciples because you’ve kicked everyone else out of your church”. He said, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35).
However, love itself is not the answer for good doctrine. Love is the outcome of good doctrine…but good doctrine must find its foundation rooted in the truth of the Word of God. The scripture is resplendent with warnings that there will be an ever increasing number of wolves in the last days, who seek to use self-serving theology to strip the church of its holiness, zeal, and love of God.
Because of this, we cannot offload the responsibility for good doctrine onto a group of professionals who have an undeniable bias when it comes to where you attend church, what you believe, or how you give. Your relationship with God is your responsibility. Your walk with God is renewed in knowledge. The first place to start is understanding the scripture. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).
The Bible isn’t a particularly complex book, but it is a very detailed book that requires diligence to understand it. Each of us will one day give an answer for what we believe and how we acted on that faith. In the end, you alone will be held accountable. So take ownership of your relationship with God. Consider that you will not give an answer for what your church taught but what you believed. Make sure that your faith is rooted in The Faith given to us by the Word of God.
The Bible offers this warning to the individual believer:
“8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:8-9).
As Christians, we should know the scripture well enough to recognize the difference between the commandments of men and the commandments of God. To discern this, you must read the Bible and question everything you are taught about God that does not have a chapter and verse attached to it. Paul himself made note of how much he appreciated the brethren at Berea for not taking him at his word alone but searching the scripture daily.
Being more conservative or more strict does not mean that the teacher is correct or more holy.
I once knew a man who drove a horse drawn wagon across multiple states because he stated that it was evil to drive a car. He told everyone who would listen that the Bible taught that we should not love this world and then proclaimed that owning a vehicle, having a driver’s license, and paying taxes was loving this world. He pompously and publicly looked down on those around him who had more entanglements with this world. Years later, I became aware that before, during, and after his self-righteous wagon ride, he molested his daughter repeatedly. That man did not love God; he had a heart of stone that was lifted up in pride over his man-made doctrine while ignoring the Word of God and the heart of God when it came to his own actions.
Note that it wasn’t his actions that made his doctrine wrong: His doctrine was wrong because it was not found in the Word of God but in the traditions of men. What his doctrine did is the same thing that the doctrine of the Pharisees did—it gave him cover to exercise his evil heart, while justifying himself in his own eyes and before his own peers. The thing is that “godly doctrine” is not a euphemism, but a doctrine that originates from the character and mind of God. There is only one place from which we can derive such doctrine: the infallible Word of God.
Doctrine is not owned by men. Doctrine comes from God and is available to all. In contrast, “isms” are a theological system defined and related to a man. Catholicism, Calvinism, Arminianism, Mormonism, etc. seek purity of conviction based on an external series of rules that are upheld by Bible references. In other words, an “ism” has a life of its own outside of the Bible, and the Bible is used as a supporting document for “the truth” of the “ism”. The systematic theology of an “ism” is anachronistic to biblical doctrine by using special revelation or changing the definition of words to fit the pre-supposed systematic theology in order to make its adherents feel special.
“16 Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.
17 If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.
18 He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him” (John 7:16-18).
Godly doctrine isn’t just good information; it calls us into fellowship with God and his children. The principal outcome of good doctrine is that we love God, love each other, and hate sin.
If your doctrine makes allowance for a life of sin, it is lascivious and you have been taken captive. If your doctrine pays for a life of leisure for the leaders of your organization, if it is money driven or finance focused, if righteousness can be purchased and godliness measured in dollars, you have been sold a bill of goods; stop buying it.
If your doctrine is exclusionary and requires the permission of a man or group of men for entrance into the body of Christ, it is self-willed and ungodly.
The Bible sees false doctrine, not as an accidental occurrence, but an intentional twisting of scripture in order to create followers that would affirm or finance the teachers. The “ism” will do one of three things:
1 Make allowance for the lascivious lifestyle of its devotees.
2 Enrich the leadership who are pushing this particular theology.
3 Affirm the exclusionary value of its proponents over the rest of Christendom.
This list is not unique to the religious realm; you will find it in politics, big business, and any other worldly pursuit. It goes back to the beginning, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
If your doctrine separates you from the world, rather than sending you into the world with the love of Christ, it isn’t godly doctrine. We are called to be a peculiar people, not an isolated people. We are called to affect the world with our lives as ambassadors or strangers, proclaiming God’s goodness among the lost. We are told to pray that God would send forth laborers and then, we are told to go. If our doctrine countermands that order, however sophisticated it may be, it is wrong.
Godly doctrine will call us to love mercy, to be faithful, honest, hopeful, filled with joy and thanksgiving. It will call us to holiness, to take up our cross daily, and to rejoice without ceasing. In short, godly doctrine will be defined by godliness, not self-righteousness.
“14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ” (Ephesians 4:14-15).
“1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth” (1 Timothy 4:1-3).
“3 If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness;
4 He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,
5 Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself” (1 Timothy 6:3-5).
“2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears” (2 Timothy 4:2-3).
“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” (1 Timothy 4:16).
“9 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.
10 For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:
11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake” (Titus 1:9-11).