Here’s what brought these thoughts about: I was listening to John MacArthur a couple weeks ago, and he used a personal anecdote where he absolutely ridiculed a lady who was selling homemade quilts. He made fun of her, of her quilts, the way she talked, her husband. . .
And he prides himself on his doctrine. And he knows far more “Bible” and doctrine than me. But he forgot something along the way. He forgot the goal.
(1 Timothy 1:5 NASB) But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
What did we forget on the way to the store?
First, this is not another unity love-in. . .let’s don’t worry about doctrine. . .doctrine divides so let’s focus on love and worship session. Doctrine is essential to our relationship with God, both in coming to him and in maturing in Jesus Christ.
The goal of our instruction (our doctrine) is love.
The means and the end are both crucial. I believe we can deduce that to love as God desires that we need proper doctrine. And proper doctrine finds its way to the goal.
We have let our doctrine lead us off onto a detour of pride.
That is where we miss it when we exalt doctrine above its place; doctrine has a goal. I remember preaching this text several years ago, and a fine man in our church took issue with me. He asked, “If I understand you correctly, then you are saying that love is more important than doctrine?” Yes. That was exactly what I was saying.
I was not saying that doctrine wasn’t important. I was saying that the goal was more important than the way we get there. Both are necessary.
How can we pride ourselves on doctrine that forgets its goal?
How can we feel good about instruction that does not meet its goal? Too often our goal is only academic. Too often our goal is the study of doctrine. Too often the preacher entertains the audience with his knowledge of doctrine and intellectual savvy. Too often our doctrine is not tested by whether or not it reaches its goal in the eyes of God.
And the goal is love.
You wrote: “And the goal is love.”
AMEN.
Wow, does this post hit home. Those who worship at the altar of doctrine unfortunately end up being factious and divisive, and tend to display pride and arrogance rather than love.
I remember a quote that goes something like: “Follow the man who seeks after truth; doubt the man who finds it.”
I read an interesting weblog posting today where someone asked an honest question that they needed help with: “What is the difference between an Evangelical and a Fundamentalist?” The arrogance and name-calling and bashing of Brothers and Sisters in Christ left a bad taste in my mouth. It took about 20 sarcastic or inflammatory responses before someone actually tried to honestly answer the question that was being posed.
No, none of us are perfect. No, there is no one denomination or label that “has it all figured out right”. And, like many other truth-seeking Christians, I am frustrated and disheartened by much of the state of Western Protestant Evangelicalism / Fundamentalism. But if the goal is love, then we should not be bashing each other with our Bibles. We should be loving each other as Christ loved.
I’m probably rambling, but I’m just trying make sure I’m doing this right myself. 🙂
I believe much of the problem is our approach to the Bible. I believe in sound doctrine, but this teaching has to go past our minds. Knowledge makes us proud. We can study a book about operating a machine and that is helpful that we learn “the doctrines” of machine operation. But we have to sit behind the wheel and move the levers before we really know what is going on.