Gaining Sound Doctrine

Call to Prayer

Title: Gaining Sound Doctrine

By: Daniel Peter

Date: 17.09.2021

For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

2Timothy 4:3 (NIV)

Reading through the bible and comparing the lives of Christians that lived shortly after the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and Christians that exist now, we will find that there is a sharp difference in the quality of faith they demonstrated, their expectations from God and their attitude towards Him in times of crises. This difference can be traced to the quality of teachings they received.

Doctrine is simply the acceptable beliefs and practices in the faith, and it is communicated to the adherents by teaching or preaching. Before His ascension, Our Lord Jesus Christ took time to entrust the doctrine of the new covenant to His disciples and commanded them to teach the nations the same (Matt. 28:20). The quality of the doctrine passed was first seen in the quality of lives the disciples lived themselves, then their followers. Today, there has been a deviation from the way presented by Jesus Christ by what is taught and practiced in the Churches. This deviation from the way isn’t just the faults of the Shepherds but also the sheep who would not put up with sound doctrine.

One of the noticeable traits of the early church was that their faith wasn’t based on what they can receive from God, but it was a response to the love shown to them by Jesus Christ. This is the reason someone like Apostle Paul could say “…the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me (Gal. 2:20)”. This attitude is in sharp contrast with what is obtainable today: many Christians now take the faith as a means to get their heart desires (actually, what they lust after). And when this is not met at their time, they are discontent with God. Serving God shouldn’t be about things.

Again, suffering because of obedience to the faith was one that was practiced with much joy in the early church. Acts 5:41 recounts how the Apostles rejoiced because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. They were able to do this because they were taught the rewards for suffering for His name (1 Peter 5:10, Romans 8:17). In today’s Church, this is a forbidden topic, as the subject of suffering or endurance isn’t palatable to a generation that is used to convenience. The results of this are a people who can’t endure hardness as a good soldier of God (2 Tim. 2:3-5) and are quick to sacrifice what they believe for cheap gain.

I can go on and on in revealing how far a section of the church has departed from sound doctrine, but the most helpful information would be “how do we return?”. The solution to the departure from sound doctrine is for us (Shepherds and sheep) to go back to the word of God and discover truths for ourselves. Many teachers or preachers mainly retell what they have received from another, passing on their errors and biases. The sheep who receive these stale messages are not able to prove themselves because they lack the word. With all returning to the word, the Shepherds can depend on the Holy Spirit for inspiration on what to teach from the word, and the sheep will better receive sound doctrines because they can understand it, for each message will come to confirm what they have been taught by the Lord Himself in the secret place (1 John 2:27).  

Prayer Point:

Let us thank Him for His word today, and let us ask Him to help believers around the world to develop the culture of reading the word for ourselves and for Him to give us the confidence to receive and proclaim whatever He teaches us in the secret place. 

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