Suppose you were left to carry on the family business. You remember growing up how much your parents (or grandparents) sacrificed to fulfill their dream. You remember the sleepless nights, the long days, and the sweat they endured just to keep it going. Now, they’re gone and you are left to keep it afloat. Trust me! You will continue to work hard out of respect for your parents or grandparents. Their legacy lives on in you and you want to honor their memory by keeping their dream alive.
Well, I feel the same way about the doctrine of the church and the early fathers. I never met Paul, John, Peter, James, or any of the other first century leaders. Yet, I know they worked really hard to keep theology in place. Paul was always addressing issues in the church and false teaching that was invading the church. I’ve worked really hard for the Kingdom of God, but not nearly as hard as Paul and the other early leaders. We know from Scripture that they worked long days and nights, endured unbelievable suffering, and prayed fervently that the churches would stay true to God’s Word.
In this day, we often put experience and encounter over doctrine. We think as long as our heart remains right with Christ, then we’re doing good. Remember, though, that the heart is desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9), so that means it’s prone to wander. Therefore, we need good and biblical theology to stay on the right path. Hence, we need to care about doctrine. In fact, John tells his readers: “Watch out that you do not lose what we WORKED SO HARD to achieve.”
The early leaders spent a lot of time talking about grace, the supremacy of Christ, salvation, sanctification, justification, sin, righteousness, and the character of God. They went to great lengths to put a strong foundation in place. But what I’ve seen in the Church startles me. I’ve seen people (pastors, teachers, leaders) misuse, misrepresent, abuse, ignore, and water down doctrine. They skirt around foundational principles that have held the Church up for centuries. One of the reasons why the corporate church is so weak is because theology has been viciously attacked, twisted, and ripped apart over the years.
So, is doctrine important? Absolutely! In fact, I will keep fighting for it until I no longer have a voice. With that said, how can we be sure we’re following the right theology? Here’s the simple answer… The more you study the REAL thing (the Bible), the more you will be able to pick out the false thing. And when you see something that fails to measure up to the truth of God’s Word, then call it out for what it is. And make sure you don’t adhere to it. Let’s work hard to preserve what our spiritual fathers put in place.