Sound Doctrine ...

Wednesday, June 1, 2016. In the Christian community we have the need of sound doctrine without indoctrination. We are in need of laying a sound basis of faith, and having sound contents, without coming with an inflexible system of propositions which leads to rather death than life! Is that possible?

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Stewardship …

The answer is a clear yes! It is possible to come with sound doctrine. And the reason why I believe in it is the New Testament itself. All the stories and speeches and the letters of the New Testament fight for a sound doctrine, which is full of life and leads to life, to eternal life. It is full of power, full of passion, full of truth and mercy. And it fights for sound doctrine. Let us look into 1 Timothy, where the apostle Paul writes:

3 As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, 4 nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. 5 The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (1 Tim 1, 3-5)

The goal with respect to the biblical texts which Paul formulates here is “stewardship”. The term reminds us more of production lines and output or throughput than of scholarship, and that is important, since there is a goal in the biblical texts. They have a clear purpose!

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Pure Heart …

The goal is love that issues from a pure heart and good conscience. The goal is sincere faith. Our faith trusts God. It trusts Jesus. We know that they are the beginning of all creation and they are the end of all. We know and believe that they are the Lord of all. It fills our heart with joy and thankfulness, since they are good, they are truth, they are full of mercy.

The Christian community needs scholars who do the research and built up the knowledge about traditions, about theological lines of argument, about the history of the texts and how they have been passed down through the ages. We need all this, yet it is not the core of faith. The core is the presence of God in our life. The core is his mercy, his forgiveness, his truth and love reaching our heart and our mind. Good scholarship can support this, but it cannot generate it.

It is interesting that Paul tells Timothy to influence people to teach sound doctrine. He is concerned, and his activity is to tell people. He is arguing. He is preaching. He is there with his passion and his mind. It is important that we continue to do this, and follow his faith and his love, given to us as an example. (Roland Potthast) ... more texts