INTRODUCTION

This is the second question in a two-part piece, entitled “Two Common Questions to Answer in Today’s Largely Apostate Church”. The first question was “Is Hell Real?” This has already been published here: https://diakrisis-project.com/2025/04/15/two-common-questions-to-answer-in-todays-largely-apostate-church-question-1-is-hell-real/ . In the present piece, I am responding to the question, “Is Doctrine Necessary?”

First, I would like to reframe the question because there is a semantic issue which needs dealing with. When the word “doctrine” is used in translation in the New Testament, it has traditionally been used together with the word “sound” — “sound doctrine” (e.g., 1 Timothy 1:10; 4:6; 2 Timothy 4:3; Titus 1:9; 2:1). However, the phrase “sound doctrine” — which was originally used in the KJV translation more than 400 years ago — does not sufficiently encapsulate today what the Bible texts are really communicating. The Greek words used are, ὑγιαινούσης διδασκαλίας, hygiainousēs didaskalias. The root of hygiainousēs is hygiaínō, from where the English word “hygiene” is derived. The root of didaskalias is διδάσκω, didasko, which means to teach — to impart knowledge and information. Therefore, the literal translation of hygiainousēs didaskalias is “healthy teaching”. I believe that this should be the correct translation of those two words. Every religion and philosophy has ‘doctrine’ attached to it. But the faith of Christ is not just another religion or philosophy. So by using the phrase, “sound doctrine”, we diminish the uniqueness of discipleship to Christ and make it sound like just another ‘doctrine’.

The word “doctrine” is too cold and clinical, too rooted in the intellect, too easily learned by rote, and is also too closely related to the gross concept of “indoctrination”; whereas the idea behind “teaching” is a concept which is lively and productive, healthful for body, mind and soul. We are not just dealing here with something that is simply “sound” (i.e. proper, solid, etc.) but something which is spiritually healthy, in that it imparts health and well-being in the life of a soul, and has the imprimatur of God. ‘Healthy teaching’ is therefore so much more all-encompassingly spiritual than ‘sound doctrine’.

Teaching is primarily useful for the health that it breathes into the soul. Simply memorizing a doctrinal body of information in order to accumulate knowledge, or to impress others, or to try and “gain points” with God (as often appears to be the case), are all worldly strategies and are futile. For teaching to be healthy, it has to build a person up, rendering them more spiritual and making them more mature. The more knowledgeable one becomes through healthy teaching, the more humble and wise one should be. True teaching — healthy teaching — cannot be imparted by rote or through catechising. Healthy teaching involves wise instruction which breathes new life into the heart and floods light into the soul.

In this brief message, as an extension of what I have written in the introduction above, I want to outline three unhealthy approaches to teaching and three healthy approaches to it.

I. UNHEALTHY APPROACHES TO TEACHING

Teaching has to be healthy. The two words go together. Or they should. What happens when they fail to do so? What would be unhealthy approaches to teaching? Here are three such unhealthy approaches:

1) Seeing Knowledge as Something to be accrued for the Purposes of Pride or Personal Kudos

I have often observed people showing off regarding what they know theologically. They didn’t even know that they were. They just assumed that storing up doctrinal knowledge will somehow seal their salvation. Doctrinal literature can be immensely rewarding in the right hands and entering the right kind of mind. But when people read more theology than Bible, as so often happens, there will be an imbalance. There is often an attitude which is that somehow the more doctrine one can memorise the more of a solid Christian one will be. But that is a great illusion. “Doctrinal knowledge”, or the accrual of knowledge through teaching, is of no value whatsoever apart from its sanctifying fruits, as I will develop below.

If I was right now a pastor in a church, I would not want my flock to merely be genned up on “doctrine”. I would rather want them to be steeped in teaching from Scripture which has a wholesome fallout in their lives. I do not want people simply to be “sound”, in the sense of having every “i” dotted and every “t” crossed (or else!). I want them to be spiritually healthy. Wherever “sound doctrine” becomes more important than “healthy teaching” from the Bible, the equivalent of an Inquisition will ensue, in which a person will be judged by others (Inquisitors) in a legalistic manner according to how intellectually well-versed they are in the doctrine itself. But true disciples of Christ do not need to be judged by other people, especially less-developed ones of a pharisaic nature who are only interested in jots and tittles but neglect the weightier matters. Genuine disciples of Christ are very good at judging themselves. There is nothing more beautiful than seeing yourself grow in grace and a knowledge of the truth. That is spiritual health, the result of healthy teaching.

Another unhealthy approach to teaching is:

2) Seeing Teaching as Something to be Learned by Rote Catechistically

The learning of something so that it can be readily repeated robotically is not the same as imbibing it into one’s heart and soul as well as the mind. One does not need to memorise any teaching by rote in order for it to have a healthy effect on the soul. I have been deeply affected by Jesus’ sermon on the Mount of Olives but I could not recite verbatim the entire chapters in Matthew 24 and Mark 13. It is how a teaching hits you at the time of receiving it which counts. Either it speaks to you at a profound level or it doesn’t.

Another unhealthy approach to teaching is:

3) Seeing Teaching as Mere Words and Thoughts Rather than as Supernatural Impartation

Something which is generally misunderstood, or at least underestimated, is that words can carry supernatural power. Especially this is true of the word of God, which is why the words of which it consists have been composed. Jesus fingered the Jewish leaders lack of understanding of this truth when He said to them:

“You pore over the Scriptures because you presume that in them you possess eternal life. But these are the very words that bear witness concerning Me; yet you are not willing to come to Me, that you may have life” (John 5:39-40).

Do you see what Jesus is saying here? As the great expositor, John Gill, put it: “They imagined, by having these writings in their hands, and by their reading them, and hearing them expounded every sabbath day, they should obtain and inherit everlasting life”. Because that is what they actually believed. They thought that by merely reading and memorizing the Scriptures, or even listening to them, then that in itself would guarantee them eternal life. Yet, in doing so they missed the reality of what the words mean. So they were reading Scriptures (and in the case of the Scribes, actually writing them out day-in-day-out) and believing that alone would give them eternal life — just the words as words. But they failed to imbibe the supernatural connotations and follow the prescriptions. They knew the husk of the Scriptures, and they were expert at spouting the doctrine (and inventing new ones), but they had never penetrated the heart of them. They were reading and memorizing Scriptures about Jesus, even those which prophesied about His first coming — yet when He actually came into their presence, they rejected Him! This is because they were not open to the supernatural element in the words. The kingdom of God was right there in their midst, personified in the Messiah Himself (as He demonstrated in Luke 17:21), yet they failed to discern that.

Here is the bottom line: Unless one is born again, one cannot even see the kingdom of God (John 3:3). For without that, then words are mere words and have no supernatural connotation. When the Bible falls into the hands of the unholy, it is sure to be not only misunderstood but also misused.

II. HEALTHY APPROACHES TO TEACHING

In our churches, we want to foster “healthy teaching” rather than merely instilling “sound doctrine”. It is not enough to be dealing in “doctrine”, which tends towards intellectualism and, very often, pride. On the other hand, healthy teaching is lively and fruitful and fosters deep spirituality, as well as an understanding of things that some would call “doctrine”.

Three approaches to teaching which generate good health are:

1) Teaching from Scripture Exclusively

Don’t put up with the ubiquitous ‘peptalks’ or motivational addresses one finds in so many churches today! What are needed today and at all times are expository sermons which bring out the heart of the text and pierce through to the soul. If you are a pastor, don’t be ashamed of preaching. Preaching means proclamation. Proclamation of the truth from Scripture. “Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). While theological literature can be useful in the right hands, there is nothing more edifying than imbibing Scripture, especially when it is being expounded by a theologically-literate preacher. In Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, on the word didáskō, the section “HELPS Word Studies” states:

“In the New Testament, didasko (“teach”) nearly always refers to teaching the Scriptures (the written Word of God). The key role of teaching Scripture is shown by its great frequency in the New Testament, and the variety of word-forms (cognates). This includes three noun-forms, two adjectival forms, and one verb, totalling about 220 occurrences in the New Testament”.

Therefore, teaching faithfully and untendentiously from Scripture must take precedent in the churches if there is to be health in the congregation. Healthy teaching is the only way; and healthy teaching means teaching from Scripture.

Another healthy approach to teaching is:

2) Teaching from Scripture Systematically

While it may be okay to give the occasional sermon on an isolated verse or passage (maybe at a keynote seasonal point in the year), or to do a series on a particular subject, one should ideally be working one’s way through a book of the Bible. That way, verses or passages are far less likely to be taken out of context. This leads to more consistent healthy teaching. When working one’s way consistently through Scripture, the Bible comes alive in ways that are not so readily apparent when teachers are dotting around from one place to another.

Another healthy approach to teaching is:

3) Emphasising that Teaching is Worthless without Growth Following On

Do you recall how, after post-resurrection Jesus had been teaching Cleopas and another disciple about all the Scriptures related to Him in the Old Testament, they later said to the apostles, “Were not our hearts burning within us as He spoke with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32)? I get goosebumps when I read that verse! This good form of ‘heartburn’ is what should be happening when healthy teaching is taking place (i.e., when the Scriptures are being opened). Here is a truthful saying: In just the same way that “faith without works is dead”, so teaching without aiming to generate fruit is dead also. Teaching has to be lively. In order to be lively, it has to be healthy. In order to be healthy, it needs to be both imparted and received supernaturally.

You see, my friends, the Lord Jesus has given some to be teachers so as “to equip the saints for works of ministry and to build up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12). Any other basis for teaching is worthless. And that “building up” is to make us “reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, as we mature to the full measure of the stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). The knock-on effect of this is so that “we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming” (Ephesians 4:14). That is the result of healthy teaching, which has a supernatural aim, enabling us to “in all things grow up into Christ Himself, who is the head” (Ephesians 4:15). This is why teaching is worthless if there is no growth following out of it. Simply filling your head with ‘heavy doctrine’ in order to increase your knowledge base will eventually make that head start bobbling with pride! But if your heart (via your head) is receiving much healthy teaching, this will pan out in your life in multiple wonderful ways that you can barely imagine.

CONCLUSION

The impartation of healthy teaching from Scripture involves supernatural processes, both on the part of the teacher and the learner. It trains the mind to become a conduit to the heart. Healthy teaching not only buttresses you against deception but it also elicits joy in the soul. However, the communication of mere doctrine as doctrine will leave you stuck in your head and can make you become dour, legalistic and joyless. I have come across many joyless purveyors of doctrinal pride in my time. They can be an inquisitorial pain in the ass with their nit-picking pedantry — always looking for the errors in others and, of course, utterly blind to their own!

When all is said and done, and life has been lived and death has overtaken us, we will not be tested by God on our knowledge of “doctrine” at the pearly gates of heaven. We WILL be tested on how our learning (the healthy teaching we have received) has panned out in our treatment of others, our general comportment, our ethics, our deeds, our moral integrity and our spiritual health (see Matthew 25:31-46). “For the time will come” — indeed it already HAS come — “when people will not endure healthy teaching, but according to their own desires, having an itching ear, they will heap up for themselves teachers to suit themselves” (2 Timothy 4:3). Healthy teaching is only desired by those who value their spiritual health. Only those who have been regenerated will value their spiritual health.

So, in answer to the overarching question, “Is Doctrine Necessary?”, the short answer would be yes, but… only if it comes to you as healthy teaching uniquely from Scripture, and only if you have been regenerated. Therefore, first ensure that you really are regenerated, born from above, rendered a new creation. Then, by nature (your new nature), you will see to it that your spiritual health is bolstered by healthy teaching which brings Scripture alive in your heart, to the eternal benefit of your soul.

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2025
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]

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