Which Doctrine is Most Important!

Everything we do in or lives is based upon priorities.  We determine what we do with our days based upon priorities.  We pay our bills based upon which one is the most pressing.  And sometimes we even prioritize the doctrines which we teach and learn.  But why?

When we think about doctrine, it is very easy to think in terms of these priorities, because, for instance, the doctrine of salvation is clearly more important because it is necessary for entrance into Heaven and it brings a sinner into the family of God (Acts 4:12).  But in contrast, the doctrine of angels is clearly less important because, though a truth, it casts no bearing on our future in Heaven and really in comparison is almost unnecessary.  Think about it, whether a person grasps angels and demons really is less important isn't it?

It is less important depending on how you view the Christian life.

If you view going to Heaven as the pinnacle of Christianity then anything that directly affects that part of the Christian life will seem more important, such as salvation over angel doctrine.  But if you realize that living the Christian life is just as important as going to Heaven, then every doctrine becomes crucial because every doctrine is a part of that Christian life.

As an illustration, when the Bible says "All scripture is given by inspiration" (2 Timothy 3:16) does that mean we can ignore the "unimportant" words and just focus on the really key words, such as Jesus, God, love, and so on?  Of course not!  When God said "all scripture" He means "ALL."  Every word is pure (Proverbs 30:5) and every word is what we must live by (Luke 4:4).  Thus every word is key and by default every doctrine which is contained in those words must be of equal value.  No doctrine is unimportant because no words of God are unimportant.

However, too often churches tend to focus on their pet doctrines because those are crucial to their view and thus the other doctrines are left to gather dust in their teaching time.  But is that not ignoring the truths of God because of man's prioritizing of doctrine?

Also a point to ponder is that the idea of doctrine having nine or ten aspects is really a man made limitation and prioritizing too.  No where is scripture is salvation called a doctrine, yet it is clearly by men and rightfully so.  But as a matter of fact the only things that are actually called doctrines directly in Scripture are false doctrines (Revelation 2:14) and the doctrines of which Christ taught (Hebrews 6:1).  What this means is that when we divide doctrine into its categories, IE Eschatology,  we may be causing confusion about seeming priorities of doctrine, when all doctrine should be important.  The titles of doctrine help clarify, but they must not be used to set priority boundaries around our teaching of all doctrinal truths.

There is little doubt in Scripture that we should look forward to Heaven (2 Corinthians 5). But it is also true that every doctrine plays a part in our daily walk with the Lord (Ephesians 4:14) because without doctrine we will as unstable as the wind.