Till I come, give attention
to reading, to exhortation,
to doctrine......
Meditate on these things;
give yourself entirely to them,
that your progress may be
evident to all.
Take heed to yourself and to
the doctrine. Continue in them,
for in doing this you will save
both yourself and those who hear.
1Timothy 4:13,15-16
The apostle Paul was giving instruction to Timothy encouraging him to remain faithful to the doctrine and to pay special attention in what he taught, and what he meditated upon, in fact, Timothy was to give himself entirely to them. First, this letter was written to Timothy and those instructions by Paul was for Timothy. So then, this fact lets us off the hook? Right? We don't have to give ourselves entirely to them! Right? We don't have to give attention to the Bible and read it! Right? Those doctrines in the Bible are for those who teach and preach and as this instruction was to Timothy, we are not involved! Right? Or, is the Bible the inspired word of God for our instruction? Is not every word written under the power of the Holy Spirit, preserved by the promise of God written for all believers? Are not Christians, the children of God, supposed to be on watch for false doctrine? In the first chapter of 1Timothy we are admonished by Paul, and he was speaking of Christians: "But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully" (1Timothy 1:8). Paul was using the word "we" for both him and Timothy, but the we is extended to all to whom Timothy would be overseer to, and to whom he would preach and teach, therefore the we extends to all of God's children. Paul in reminding Timothy about the law and that the law was made for the ungodly (vs. 9), and Paul gives a list of sins and in that list he makes this statement: "for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine" (1Timothy 1:10). This point about the doctrine that was once given to the Church is important and Paul writes much about this: "Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine" (1Timothy 5:17). Whose doctrine are Christians to follow, Paul's? No! It is the doctrine or teaching of Jesus Christ: "And the scribes and chief priests heard it and s ought how they might destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His teaching (doctrine)" (Mark 11:18). For clarification, the Greek word for teaching is the same word for doctrine as is as it is translated in the King James Authorized Version. In Paul's second letter to Timothy he writes: "Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching (doctrine),(2Timothy 4:2). Here again the same word for teaching is the same word that also means doctrine, for doctrine is teaching.
Why spend so much time on doctrine? Good question! Let me ask you a question: "When was the last time your preacher spent any time speaking about doctrine, or even mentioning the word doctrine? It is if the word doctrine is pejorative, and in fact for some Churches it is pejorative. I checked this out by speaking with some parishioners and they did not know exactly what was meant by doctrine. They did not even know what was the doctrine of their Church, was was written by the Church in their (if they had one) mission statement or in their Church constitution. What they did know was that their Church did certain things that was good, and/or that they were taught how they were to live, and how the supernatural gifts were for them, etc. It seems to me that the preaching over the last 200 years and especially in these days is to tell people to expect God to do wonderful things in their lives, to bring prosperity to them, to heal them of their sickness, to make their life happy, and for them to have the blessing of God, and teach metaphysical ideologies, a sort of (if not actually) new age approach to the Christian religion. Paul warns Timothy and that warning is for all of us who read and believe God's word: "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: and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables" (2Timothy 4:3-4). Paul did not just warn and instruct Timothy in this regard for as he wrote to Titus: "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. For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain" (Titus 1:9-11). Paul even admonishes slaves to be obedient to the true doctrine of God: "Exhort bondservants to be obedient to their own masters, (who are we a bondservant too, and who is our master? My addition), to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things" (Titus 2:9-10).
Preaching today is so often nothing more than stories, illustration after illustration, in fact sometimes we know more about a preacher's children than what is the Bible actually teaching. Sad stories, heart wrenching stories, all attempting to lead a person to make a decision for Christ, or happy stories, etc. stories after stories, it just makes for good hearing, touching on the senses, but there is little if any about the hard teachings, those doctrines that the apostles and earlier Old Testament writers wrote, those commandments, those precepts that are just foreign to many Church parishioners. I will give one example: "Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned" (Titus 3:10-11). How often does a Church follow that command, or even how often do we as a child of God continue to associate with such a one? We find this hard to do, we want to "save" them, we want to be a friend to them, we have the world's thinking on this matter for we want to be friend to them, but this is not the doctrine taught to us by God's word: "But we command (notice that word, command) you, brethren (who is he talking to, us!), in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, (there is the authority for what Paul is about to say), that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us" (2Thessalonians 3:6). How often do we just don't do a thing, we allow those who live together out of wedlock, those we know who are "pot" smokers, drunkards, adulterers, etc. take of the one sacrament that is so important for Christians, The Lord's Supper? Those who are mature in Christ, who themselves have become devoted to our Savior, who follow the sound doctrine of the Word of God, should do all they can to restore such a fallen saint, yet we are admonished to follow sound doctrine and attempt to aid a brother or sister, one of God's children, to regain spiritual health: "And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he might be ashamed. Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother" (2Thessolonians 3:14-15).
How important is this teaching on following the doctrine of our Lord and Savior? Paul makes this clear: "therefore we also pray always for you that our god would count you worthy of this calling (God calls His elect), and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, and that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ" (2Thessalonians 1:11-12). Paul in writing to the Corinthian Church that had fallen into error gave this from the Old Testament: "Therefore 'Come out form among them and be separate, says the Lord. do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you" (Isaiah 52:11), (2Corinthians 56:17).
The question that a person who has come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as His Savior, and desires to follow him is: "Will you do the hard thing, that which is so opposed to the thinking of the world?" Will you follow the doctrine as taught to us in God's word? Finally, Paul writes: "Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness" (2Corinthians 6:14). Here is some good news: "And He said to me, 'It is done! I am alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son" (Revelation 21:6-7).
For this is My blood
of the new covenant,
which is shed for many
for the remission of sins.
But I say to you, I will not
drink of this fruit of the vine
from now on until that day
when I drink it new with you
in My Father's kingdom.
Matthew 26:28-29
Pray to be counted worthy
Richard L. Crumb
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