“My son, when you go to school today, watch out for wild elephants.”
That’s not a sentence I’ve uttered to either of my children. Wild elephants aren’t really a threat in Southwest MO. The things we warn our children—or followers about are the things which we perceive to be potential threats. Wild elephants don’t rank very high on that list.
Fear can be a very good motivator. I think collegiate athletes would have better 40 yard dash times if they let a snake loose at the starting line. Ideological fears can be just as motivating, though they might not improve 40 time. Knowing fear to be a motivator there is a decent market for “single greatest threat to the gospel” literature.
Warnings aren’t necessarily bad things. In fact, the Bible has many warnings. Rather ironically, sometimes the real danger, though, is when we engage in fear-mongering. Or we distract from a real danger by over-emphasizing a potential or perceived danger. This was the case in Isaiah 8. False teachers often use fear to gain a hearing. (Consider the situation in Philippians).
A few weeks ago I found myself reading Evangelicalism Divided. In that book Iain Murray focuses on some of the changes which took place within Anglicanism (as well as the wider evangelical world) from the 1950s to the early 2000s. He makes a thorough argument about the dangers of allowing false-teaching to creep into the church. I appreciated this paragraph:
The idea that Christianity stands chiefly in danger from the forces of materialism, or from secular philosophy, or from pagan religions, is not the teaching of the New Testament. The greatest danger comes rather from temptations within and from those who, using the name of Christ, are instruments of Satan to lead men to believe a lie and to worship what in reality belongs to the demonic (2 Thess. 2:3-9; Revelation 13:11)…No one can rightly believe this without seeing the seriousness of error. Wrong belief is as dangerous as unbelief. (Murray, 259)
I don’t disagree with Murray’s warning. But it got me to thinking and scouring the Scriptures to look for the warnings. False teaching is something which we are warned about. Doctrine does matter. But what I found is that a majority of warnings aren’t about right belief but about right living.
Certainly obedience and doctrine are connected. But it’s false to assume that good doctrine will lead to right living. Jesus predominately warned against covetousness, greed, hypocrisy and the like. Paul did warn against the danger of false teachers but he also warned against biting and devouring. Likewise, the prophets and the Torah warn against failing to obey more frequently than failing to believe correctly.
1 Timothy 4:16 is telling. “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” Life AND doctrine. If we focus our eyes upon our doctrine and yet neglect to live in a manner worthy of the gospel, we bring great harm to our souls and endanger those of whom we are leading. The same is true if we focus upon right living but we neglect right teaching.
As I reflected upon this oversight in Murray’s book I couldn’t help but think about my tribe (or maybe it is former tribe at this point). Those of us who were part of the Young, Restless, and Reformed movement but a heavy focus upon doctrine and preaching. But we shared in Murray’s oversight. It was almost assumed in our circles that right living would follow on the tails of right believing. But it didn’t, and it doesn’t. We’ve experience a good deal of shipwreck because of this oversight.
As many are picking up the pieces from the shipwreck this oversight wrought, and we are engaging in this thing called deconstruction, it would do us well not to neglect sound doctrine. We are right in this moment to emphasize the important of living in a way that is consistent with the gospel of Jesus. We are right to pursue issues of justice and mercy. But as we gather on this boat and sail into the sunset we’ll find ourselves soon dashed upon the rocks again with new holes in the boat. You need both doctrine and life to sail properly.
Sail away.
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