I Don't Want It, But I Need It!

“Polly Prius” was the first car I ever purchased brand-spanking new. I vowed to read the 636-page operating manual that arrived with Polly from her trans-Pacific Ocean trip from Japan.

It wasn’t until a few years later, when the dashboard lights flashed a maintenance issue, that I scrambled and looked up the engine icon in the diagnostic section of the manual. 

I have yet to read any more of that manual. 

When a crisis happens, I tend to hurriedly flip through the Bible for answers. But Scripture teaches us that preventive maintenance and optimal performance for our lives can be found in sound doctrine.

Doctrine is mentioned quite often in the books of Timothy. It is derived from the Latin word meaning to teach, and in the Scripture below, it refers to instructions given. 

Although doctrine, like the 636-page vehicle manual, has never been my favorite topic, 1 Timothy 6:3-4 (NKJV) gives me a new perspective: If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing.

Timothy’s words of instruction are very practical. They include the roles and behaviors of men and women and the qualifications of church overseers and deacons. Other instructions address food, exercise, attitudes toward older men, younger men and women, caring for widows, providing for your relatives, and how the rich ought to live so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Timothy 3:15). 

Keeping sound doctrine requires a change in my attitudes and interactions, which is why my flesh resists. First Timothy 4:16 tells us, 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. 

Second Timothy 4:3-4 says, For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. 

My flesh does not always want to receive sound doctrine, but my spirit does because I want to honor God, watch my local church thrive, and have good relationships with the brethren. So, I have been much more attentive and accepting of how the Lord has set things up with wholesome, sound, and good doctrine. 

Now I watch more carefully how I live my life by staying nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine (1 Timothy 4:6). Practicing sound doctrine is like preventive maintenance for my life and my relationship with others, and brings honor to the church. 

These days, I am digging more eagerly into instructions, doctrines, and car manuals! Will you join me in a deliberate move toward the wholeness God offers us by engaging with the vast instructions of His Scripture?

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Scripture is quoted from the Holy Bible, New King James Version, copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.