sound doctrine

It’s not uncommon for my church friends to ask why we have to talk about doctrine. In my denomination we learn it from doctrinal statements like the Heidelberg Catechism and the Canons of Dordtrecht. Those tend to be dry and sometimes hard to understand, but they are a good way to describe and summarize what is revealed across all of scripture about God and how we relate to him.

But most of my church friends have little interest in doctrine. They just want the Bible, and the right songs. It’s easier that way.

Here’s what Paul said on the topic, in Titus 2:1-2, 11-14: “You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine. Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance . . . . For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”

As a man who is rapidly becoming older, I see a lot of value here. Instead of eccentric or curmudgeonly or blunt, all the things old men tend to be, I’d rather be temperate. I like that word; like tempered, it implies some ability to withstand stress and pressure without getting bent out of shape. This world needs more temperate old men, not to mention ones worthy of respect, self-controlled and sound in faith, love and endurance.

All that can come from learning sound doctrine. Want to say no to those worldly passions? Paul says learning sound doctrine will help you live a self-controlled, upright and godly life.

I like to think of it like this: reading the Bible teaches us the parts of God’s revelation, but doctrine teaches us the entirety of it. It’s hard to pull a cohesive understanding of the Trinity or election or baptism or grace or the law from the Bible, but all those things are summarized for us in our doctrinal statements. And the real value of the Heidelberg Catechism and other like documents is they have been validated for us by generations of wise leaders. We can trust them.

So by all means keep up your Bible reading; in fact, if you’re only going to look one place go there first. But don’t devalue sound doctrine. After all, it and scripture are really saying the same things.