Christian Living

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by Rev. Jeff Hagan, DCE, DMin, (ThD)

Introduction:

Too many churches today are making doctrine a secondary issue. Instead of making sure they have a core of essential, historic, fundamental, biblical Christian beliefs, they would rather make sure their worship leaders know the newest and most popular worship songs. Instead of making it clear on where they stand on doctrinal issues they would rather make sure their youth group is taking part in the most popular fads. And, they want their sermons to be filled with video clips, power point presentations, and the hip vocabularies predominent in popular churches rather than wanting pure bibilical doctrine. This is completely backwards! This is the exact opposite of how it shoud be. We need to bring doctrine back to the forefront.

Titus 1:5-9, especially verse 9:

"This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you—if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it" (ESV).

This passage is primarily concerned with the qualifications needed for leadership in the church. "Blameless" and "above reproach" are the main ideas being portrayed. Elders need to be above reproach in their family life (v.6), their personal character (vs.7-8), and blameless in their doctrine (v.9). Verse 9 is our focus.

The requirement for elders to be blameless in their doctrine, as well as the many other passages admonishing us to study and know God's Word, is an in-your-face indication that this should be the main focus of all believers as well.

1. Committed to Sound Doctrine - "Hold firm to the trustworthy word..." An elder must be completely devoted to the faithful word. The greek here is "pistoo-logoo" meaning faithful word or trustworthy saying. This phrase is exclusive to the writings of Paul and to the Pastoral Epistles particularly (1 Tim. 1:15; 3:1; 4:9; 2 Tim. 2:11; Titus 3:7-8). Paul and the rest of the apostles had laid the groundwork and provided authority for the early church, but as is all too familiar we all get old. The apostles started becoming elderly. Paul's thought here is to direct believers to future times and to where their authority will come from during those times. In essence Paul is saying, "I'm going to end up dying and when I'm gone you still have the proper authority with you - it is the authority of the word of God. Hold onto it firmly."

2. Committed to Preaching Sound Doctrine - "...as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it" The preaching , sharing, teaching, and exhortation of the word of God is a central focus of the church. This is actually one of the major themes of the Passtoral Epistles (1 Tim. 3:2; 4:13; 5:17; 2 Tim. 2:1-2, 15, 25; 4:1-2).

3. Practical Application of Sound Doctrine - "...give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it"

A. Exhort and Encourage - The leader/elder must be able to exhort and encourage by their preaching of sound doctrine. Teaching and preaching is much more than just passing on learned information or theological truth. We are called to communicate God's truth in a way as to call people along side of the truth of God as if they're walking hand in hand. The question to be answered is "How does God's Word apply to our lives?"

B. Convict - We are to confront and correct those who stand against the truth. We must rebuke and refute these false teachers. "Refute" means to expose, uncover, set forth, or to convince or convict. We need to teach God's Word clearly and consistently enough to expose error and to allow the Holy Spirit to move in convincing and convicting those who stand against it.

Conclusion:

Let's take a minute to be clear that by way of application, there are three basic categories to our doctrine that we need to be aware of:

-Absolute truth - these are the truths that actually divide believers and non-believers. These are the essentials of the faith, the doctrines necessary for salvation, like the person of Christ, His death for our sins, His bodily resurrection, etc. We embrace these doctrinal truths becaue we believe in the absolute authority of the inspired Scripture.

-Convictions - these are beliefs that don't have to be held in order to be saved. These are our beliefs on the details surrounding things like water baptism, the gifts of the Spirit, and eschatology (the Last Things).

-Preferences - different Christians, churches, and denominations prefer different styles of worship or types of music. That's all it really is, preferences, nothing more.

Warnings:

There are three things we need to be warned of regarding absolutes, convictions, and preferences. The first danger is taking everything you believe and lifting it up to a position of an absolute, or essential. The second danger is focusing on one of the covinctions to the extent that all of the others are left out. And the third danger is believing that doctrine is not really important. This false view states we just need to "believe in Jesus" because after all "doctrine divides us and love unites us." I'd like to propose just the opposite, a LACK of doctrine is what truly divides. It's when everyone believes whatever they want with no commitment to doctrine that we have division.

Saint Augustine: "In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty [freedom]. In all things, charity [love]."

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