|
About Jesus Steve Sweetman The
Death Of Doctrine In
1Timothy 4:15 and 16 Paul tells Timothy to "be diligent in these
matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone will see your
progress.
Watch your life and doctrine closely.
Persevere in them …" (NIV) Paul tells Timothy to give
himself wholly to both his "life and doctrine".
The
word "life" in this verse refers to the way Timothy should
live. He
is to live a righteous life which would be an example for others.
With the addition of the word "doctrine" in this
admonition, Paul is linking living right with thinking right.
You cannot live right unless you
think right. That's
why doctrine is important. The
word "doctrine" has been falling out of fashion in Evangelical
circles for quite some time now.
We've been influenced to a degree by the non-Christian philosophy
of Relativism.
Even in Evangelicalism, many people no longer believe in absolute
truth. Truth
may vary from one Christian to the next.
The reason for this departure in thinking is due to how we view
the Bible.
No longer is the Bible a book of absolute truth.
In many people's thinking the Bible has
become a book of stories with a somewhat flexible morality.
The moral behind the story supersedes the historical accuracy of
the story and the truth it teaches.
This is clearly seen in today's post-modern Emergent Instead
of teaching timeless truths of Scripture, more and more we teach life
skills, such as how to improve your finances and sex life. My
point is simple.
You cannot separate "doctrine", or the pursuit of
Biblical truth, from these life skills, as we often do.
Paul links both life and doctrine in the above verse because he
knows they should never be separated.
If the church teaches life skills at the expense of Biblical
truth, the church becomes a self-help group instead of a body of people
who are to do the work of our Lord.
In
2 Timothy 2:2 Paul tells Timothy to teach others what he has been
taught.
This tells me that the doctrine Paul taught Timothy is meant for
all Christians, not just a few leaders.
Many Timothy's in our day don't even know Biblical doctrine in
order to teach it to those they are supposed to care for.
The devaluation of the Bible from its place of importance has
dumbed us down to a place of ignorance and Biblical illiteracy.
The death of any local church will soon follow the death of
doctrine.
The
pursuit of right thinking is important.
Jesus was very upset with the church at Pergamum
in Revelation 2:14 to 18 because some people in the church held to the
doctrine of Balaam and to the doctrine of the Nicolaitans.
He was so upset that He told these people to repent, and if they
didn't, He would fight against them with the sword of His mouth.
Some people in the church don't believe Jesus would do such a
thing.
These people have forsaken the truth this Scripture teaches.
For
the reasons I've just stated, many readers of this article won't think
what I've just said is important or relevant to their lives.
Hopefully that isn't you.
God's Word is our prize possession.
We should take it seriously.
We concern ourselves with so many aspects of life these days.
I suggest we concern ourselves with what matters, and that's the
eternal truths taught to us in the Bible.
I believe truth matters to God.
It should matter to us.
|