How would you answer this statement. "I
don't feel the need to intensively study the Bible and learn
theology. All that creates is division in the Church and we only need
to follow the words of Jesus anyway."
A friend asked me this the other day
and here is how I replied.
The claim that all we need to do is to
follow the words of Jesus is not valid for several reasons. First,
the Bible clearly teaches us that all
Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness. (2 Tim 3:16) When we limit ourselves to the words of
Jesus, we lose all of the important teaching of the rest of
Scripture, especially the rest of the New Testament. We would not
know about justification by faith, the establishment and order in the
church and many other important things. So God has graciously
provided us with much more than just the teachings of Jesus.
In
referring to the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, “However, when He, the
Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He
will not speak on His own authority,
but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to
come.” This was a prophecy about how the Holy Spirit would teach
truth to the apostles in the days following Jesus' ascension into
heaven. These truths which they learned from Him make the content of
the rest of the New Testament. It was Jesus who told us this would
happen.
Even
if all we had was the words of Jesus, there would be differences of
opinion about what He meant and we would need creeds and doctrinal
statements to clarify what a particular church believes about what
Jesus said. I have heard it said that we don't need creeds or
doctrinal statements. All we need is to say that our creed is the
Bible. What it says is what we believe. However, that is not enough
because Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Baptists, Presbyterians and
others all say that they believe the Bible and yet it is obvious that
their doctrines differ.
That
brings me to the next comment about what your friend asked. The
concern is that doctrine divides. That is true. It does. But don't we
want to know the truth? There is truth. There is falsehood. The
problem that modern people have is either that they don't believe
that truth exists or they don't believe we can know what it is. The
Bible says there is truth and we can know it. But doesn't everyone
claim that their view is the truth? Yes. But they can't all be true
because many are contradicting each other. But just because there are
many who claim truth doesn't mean that truth doesn't exist. It just
means we have to work hard and diligently to discern what the truth
is.
Paul
says in 1 Corinthians 11:19, “For there must also be factions among
you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you.” He
is acknowledging the importance of factions because that way the
truth can come out. If everyone acquiesces to some commonly held
belief, the truth will be lost.
Here
are some things that the Bible clearly teaches about teaching and
doctrine. These are in no particular order and I'll comment after
each one.
Acts 17:11 These
were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they
received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures
daily to find out
whether these things were so.
It's important to actively search the
Scriptures during and after any teaching in order to verify whether
what the teacher has taught is true. The Scripture encourages this
and lifts up the person who is engaged in this endeavor. It is to be
active and continuous. We are not to accept any teaching without
searching the Scripture. Searching the Scripture takes work. But it
is a required work.
2 Timothy 2:15 Be
diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not
need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Diligence
in the Christian life is a requirement. Part of that diligence is to
rightly divide the Word. Dividing the Word means to learn to
understand the different contexts in which teaching and events
occurred. It means to understand what is a word picture and what is
literal. An old song used to say, “All the promises in the book are
mine – every chapter, every verse, every line.” But that is not
true. God made promises to Abraham that He did not make to you and
me. We need to know the difference.
1 Timothy 6:3 If
anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words,
even
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords
with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing.
There
is such a thing as correct teaching and “teaching otherwise”.
The one who teaches otherwise is proud and knows nothing. That is
what the Bible says.
2 Timothy 4:3 For
the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but
according to their own desires, because
they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;
People
want to hear what they want to hear. Their ears are itching. Sound
doctrine is foreign to them and they would rather not hear it.
Romans 16:17 Now I
urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses,
contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them.
There is a correct doctrine and those
who teach contrary to that are to be avoided.
2 Timothy 3:16 All
Scripture is
given by inspiration of God, and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction
in righteousness,
Not just the teachings of Jesus but all
Scripture. It is to be used for reproof and correction. If it is used
for correction, that must mean some things are wrong and need to be
corrected.
Titus 1:9 holding
fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by
sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.
There is such a thing as sound and
correct teaching. Exhortation is needed to be applied to those who
contradict. In other words we can't just have the belief that
whatever anyone believes is ok. Obviously he is talking about within
the Christian community. The continual teaching of sound doctrine
will exhort those who are wrong and bring conviction to them.
Heb 5:11-14 of whom
we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull
of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you
need someone
to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and
you have come to need milk and not solid food.
For everyone
who partakes only
of milk is
unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
But solid
food belongs to those who are of full age, that
is, those
who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good
and evil.
God
wants every Christian to be taught well enough that they can teach
others. Some things in Scripture are hard to understand, such as the
teaching about Melchizidek. The author of Hebrews criticized them
because they were not ready for this teaching. It was necessary to go
over the basics again and this was not good. Those who were still
feeding on milk were considered unskilled in the word of
righteousness and he referred to them as babes. This is not a good
description. God wants each believer to grow in the word and become
strong in the doctrine.
The
bottom line is that there is truth and there is error. God has given
us the Holy Spirit in order to help us to learn from all of the
Scripture. This takes work, diligence and effort. It takes digging
into the truth of the whole Bible learning how to discern one kind of
text from another. It is necessary to learn the important teachings
about salvation, redemption, justification, sanctification, etc.
because in so doing we learn to know God better and to love Him more.
Then we are better prepared, especially as Christian men, to lead and
teach our families so that they too become godly people who can have
an impact in the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment