Christian Doctrine is so important to believers and is very exciting to study because it is the body of Bible-based teachings that Christians believe, hold to and endeavor to live out. It’s also the main area of study in Systematic Theology and is essential in framing what we believe about God and how we should live in light of that. This is why Christian Doctrine matters and for these 5 reasons too:
There is a variety of Scripture that stress the importance of doctrine and of teaching sound doctrine. It is through sound doctrine that we are presented with the true Gospel of our salvation and come to believe in Jesus. The passages below highlight the importance of keeping close watch on doctrine, warn against false teaching and encourage believers to hold on to sound doctrine.
16 Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.
1 Timothy 4:16 (NKJV)
3 If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, 4 he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.6 But godliness with contentment is great gain, ... 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, 14 to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, ...
1 Timothy 6:3-6, 12-14 (ESV)
31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
John 8:31-32 (NASB)
Christian Doctrine is true because it is Bible-based, and the Bible is true. In it we learn that sin and death entered this world because Adam & Eve believed the lie of the serpent and disobeyed God’s command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3). What we believe has life and death implications.
In the Bible, Jesus says that He is the way, the truth and the life and He is the Word of God made flesh (John 14:6 & John 1:14). When we study Christian Doctrine, we are studying the truth of God’s Word. And Truth matters because it sets us free from the bondage of sin into the freedom of knowing God and walking in righteousness with the help of His Spirit.
We access everything that Jesus is to us and has done for us through His life, death and resurrection by believing His Word when it is taught to us. We become His followers by faith in Him because of the Good News of salvation; we are saved by grace through faith. Our faith is a response to God’s gracious of salvation to us.
17So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
Romans 10:17
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9
12Because of Christ and our faith in Him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence.
Ephesians 4:12 (NLT)
We are very blessed to live in time where we’ve got about 2000 years’ worth of church history and can learn from what has happened when believers in the previous generations have deviated from true Christian Doctrine.
From her infancy, the Church has fought the good fight of faith against heresies – false teachings– that threatened to spread among believers and lead many away from the truth and ultimately away from God who is the truth (John 14:6). To solve these matters, the catholic (universal) Church gathered in a number of ecumenical councils which are gatherings of church leaders from different regions to discuss matters of orthodox doctrine (orthodoxy means ‘what is conform with apostolic teaching’). All councils were important and played a key role in preserving the traditional and orthodox Christian faith as handed down by the Apostles’ teachings.
Among these councils, the Nicene Council of 325 AD was particularly important because it had paramount implications in preserving apostolic and historical Christian Doctrine. This council was convened by the Emperor Constantine to do away with the heresy of Arianism that fiercely divided the church in that period. While affirming the humanity of Jesus, a priest from Cyrene called Arius (hence ‘Arianism’) taught and spread the false teaching that Jesus wasn’t God, that He was sent from Heaven but wasn’t God who is eternal and the creator of all things. To deal with this heresy, church leaders drew on the Apostles’ Creed (a trusted and concise statement of faith that summarized what Christians believe) and made additional Bible-based statements on the nature and divinity of Jesus to affirm the truth that He was indeed of the same nature as God the Father and was therefore fully man & fully God.
The circumstances that led to the Nicene Council are one among many historical examples of the dangers of not keeping a correct and sound doctrine of our Faith. False doctrine brings disunity among believers because we are bound and united to one another by the truth of what we believe (Ephesians 4:1-6). False doctrine is also a threat to our relationship with God who is the truth; our relationship with Him is grounded in truth and undergirded by His unconditional love for us.
Reading the Bible from cover to cover (though wonderful and highly recommended) is quite the task. Therefore, Christian Doctrine being the summary of what the Bible teaches as a whole can greatly support us to dig into the Bible from cover to cover and spot the numerous passages in their original context that inform what we believe and endeavor to live out. It is therefore practical to have Christian Doctrine as a point of reference to what the whole Bible teaches.
In his epic volume Systematic Theology, scholar Wayne Grudem points out that systematic theologians have come up with names to describe the essential doctrines of Christian Doctrine. Having these doctrines organized by topic is very helpful in guiding the noble endeavor to study Christian Doctrine:
*Here Theology in the context of Christian Doctrine is not Theology in the wider sense as the umbrella term for the study of God that includes Biblical Theology, Systematic Theology, Practical Theology and Historical Theology. Theology as study of the Doctrine of God is the body of biblical teachings on the nature and Character of God.
On another level, Christian doctrine is also practical because it has got practical implications. What we believe shapes how we live. The study of Christian Doctrine should therefore not only fill our heads with the truth of God’s Word, it should also influence our hearts and shape how we live it all out. And this fruitful living is a worthy pursuit that brings much glory to God (John 15:8).