God’s desire is for His children to know sound doctrine (Titus 2:1). He does not want us to be confused because He is the author of truth (Romans 3:4) and He does not cause doctrinal confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33). Sound doctrine comes to us with what I am going to call “ingredients.”
The first ingredient to sound doctrine is access to the truth. You cannot know sound doctrine if nothing contained it and so God has given us His Word with the all that we need and all that He desires for us to have (Revelation 22:18-19). This is what we are going to discuss in this study, but let give you the second ingredient which will be covered fully in later posts. This second ingredient is the Spirit of God’s direction (John 16:13; Matthew 16:17).
Doctrine originated with God the Father and was given to Jesus to share with us (John 7:16-18). So if we are going to study doctrine we must begin with the words of Christ (1 Timothy 6:3). You will find that every doctrinal teaching was taught by Jesus Christ and then repeated by the disciples. The disciples did not teach any doctrine that was unique to them as they simply repeated the doctrine they had been given by Jesus, Who had received it from the Father (2 John 1:9). Here is a small list of examples of doctrine taught by Christ to the disciples which were later shared with the churches:
- Church - Matthew 16:18; 18:17
- Salvation by grace through faith - Mark 2:5-9
- Heaven - John 14:1-3
- Angels - John 1:51
- Trinity - Mark 1:10-11
- Hell - Luke 16:23
- Future Events - Matthew 24-25
- Word of God - Matthew 4:4; Luke 8
- Deity of Christ - John 1:18; 6:46; 14:7-9
This is, of course, just a quick list and with further clarification, we can find EVERY doctrine within the word of Christ. It also must be noted that each doctrine is then supported with many other scriptures both Old and New Testament, though some teachings are unique to the New Testament only (IE the church). But clearly Jesus taught EVERY doctrine we need to know. So when it comes to the source of sound doctrine it is imperative that we begin this search in the words of the Savior. Spend time in His words and then expand your study from there.
1 Timothy 6:3 shows that even the Apostles knew that their doctrine was from the direct teachings of the Lord Himself, “If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness.”
How much credibility do you give to the words of Jesus? How much time do you spend in gleaning truth from the parables? Might I suggest that if you want sound doctrine that your begin in the Gospels and in the sermons and teaching sessions of the Lord Jesus Christ…the source of sound doctrine?
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