Stepping Out With God - Pasir Panjang Church of Christ Singapore

So what constitutes sound doctrine? Is it toeing the line presented by some
missionary, as some churches are doing? Is it holding on to what we first
believed and refusing to change even when we have grown in grace and
understanding? Or is it going back to the Bible and following what it teaches?
We may hold to whatever the missionary dishes out to us in our Christian
infancy, but as we grow in faith and study the Bible diligently we should
apply and retain only what the word of God teaches.
Allow me to offer some crucial steps that will help us grow in faith, hold on
to sound doctrine and be well pleasing in the sight of God, like the church in
Philadelphia who "didst keep my word, and didst not deny my name" -
Revelation 3:6-8.
1. Study the Word of God firsthand
There is no way anyone can be certain that what he believes is sound
doctrine except from his own study of the word of God. This is why the
apostle Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 2:15 to "Study to shew thyself approved
unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the
word of truth".
2. Corroborate every teaching with the Bible
I do not believe that anyone deliberately preaches what he knows to be false
in order to deceive others when he may join his audience in hell. But be
careful, we owe it to ourselves, like the Christians in Berea, whom Acts 17:11
tells us were "more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received
the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether
those things were so".
3. Own your doctrine, don’t copy & paste another's
Since the Bible is our roadmap to heaven, we cannot take any chances by
simply accepting another's doctrine, no matter how sincere or well-meaning
he may be. I love Jesus' encounter with the unnamed Samaritian woman in
John 4, especially at the point in John 4:42 when her friends "said unto the
woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him
ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world".
Every generation of Christians has to re-examine the doctrines that we pass
down to them and make it their own. Because if all we do is to blindly accept
the faith of our fathers, when the time of testing comes, we will not have a
strong foundation.
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