Going through the New Testament, you will spend a lot of time on the letters from the Apostle Paul. While he hit on a variety of important subjects which deserve a great deal of time and attention, there is one concept which he harped on that we will look at in depth today, the notion of sound doctrine.
In his letter to Titus, Paul the Apostle, makes several points, but one of the biggest is that Titus must cling to the preaching of sound doctrine. If we look at it in context, this instruction would be much easier said than done. Paul had left Titus on the island of Crete, in charge of growing the churches there. There were several issues with this which made it easier said than done. Crete was the alleged birthplace of the Greek god Zeus, meaning that the pagan influence there was incredibly strong. On top of that, Judaizers had made a home there, insisting on forcing Jewish traditions onto Christian converts. Worst of all though, were the people themselves. Cretans had developed a reputation of being the worst kinds of people, or as Paul stated “liars, viscious brutes and lazy gluttons” (Titus 1:12). If we look at all of those things it may be clear that Titus had his work cut out for him.
It is because of this difficulty, though, that Paul stresses the need for sound doctrine. A doctrine which does not bow down to the population at large or soften under scrutiny. Paul beautifully explains exactly what sound doctrine looks like in Titus 2:14. He states “He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds.” Over the next several weeks we will look at this and break it down in order to have a greater understanding of exactly what message it was that Paul was so adamant about clinging to.
The first thing Paul notes is, “He gave His life.” There is no greater point in the Christian existence than this statement. While it is light in words, it is heavy in significance. There is no other place that sound doctrine can begin, other than the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. In the modern church we have many phrases which are used constantly and one of the most regularly heard is “to give your heart to Christ.” While the intentions behind this are good (and generally just mean being born again) the phrasing itself is not the most accurate. AW Pink perhaps said it best when he said, “No sinner has ever been saved by giving his heart to God. We are saved not by our giving, but by His.” This is the cornerstone of all sound doctrine, that the giving of Christ’s life, for sinful man, sits at its core. A message which preaches anything other than this is not the Gospel, no matter how it sounds, feels or delights. Over the next few weeks we will continue to look even deeper at just what Christ’s giving means for His church and how that gift can and should, impact us far beyond salvation.