Of What Use Doctrine?

The debate is often held about the importance of doctrine over practice. Which is more important? Is it more important to know the right thing or do the right thing? If you'd like some high-sounding terms, they are "orthodoxy" and "orthopraxy" where orthodoxy refers to right thinking and orthopraxy refers to right practice. "Clearly," a large number of Christians argue, "it's far more important to do the right thing than to think the right thing." Those who lean toward orthodoxy are often labeled "too heavenly minded to be any earthly good." And, truth be told, there is often a sense of both arrogance from the orthodox and irrelevance from the orthoprax. (I know ... no such word, but you get the idea.) Those who major on orthodoxy often come across as arrogant and those who believe that it's more important to live right will often suggest that understanding right thinking isn't really as relevant as understanding right living.

If you're one of those who leans more toward orthopraxy, I'd like to suggest that you might want to reconsider. I'll offer some ideas as to why.

First, I think it's a mistake to suggest that one or the other is right. It's what those in the logic world call a "false dichotomy." It suggests that only one can be right. Stop for a moment and think and I'm sure you'll see that it is possible that both right thinking and right action could be very important to the Christian. I point that out at the outset because I am not trying to suggest that orthopraxy is irrelevant. It only takes a cursory reading of Scripture to realize that we are to do. Yes, we are to practice right living and I won't argue otherwise. On the other hand, what is the fundamental distinction of a Christian? The fundamental distinction is faith. Faith is what you believe in. And surely you can see that "what you believe in" falls under "orthodoxy" rather than "orthopraxy." So maybe, just maybe, both are in order here.

That's a start. Now, let's look at it from the orthopraxy position. What is the first command -- the first thing Christians are supposed to do? Obviously it is to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength" (Mark 12:30). We don't have to question that. Note first that "mind" is included. More importantly, try this. Imagine you are going to love your spouse ... without actually knowing your spouse. You commit to an absolute priority to love your spouse, but you argue, "right thinking about my spouse isn't as important as rightly loving my spouse." Doesn't make much sense, does it? It would seem, then, that part of loving God as we ought includes knowing Him as we ought ... or "right thinking" about God.

I think you can immediately see that "doing right" is not the basis of Christianity. We don't come to Christ by doing. We often say that Christianity is a relationship. That's not "doing." And most of us understand that there are certain fundamental truths on which Christianity rests without which it is not Christianity. You can't strip off, for instance, the doctrine of the Trinity without removing Christianity. You can't remove monotheism without undoing the Faith. The Jesus in whom you place your faith must be the Jesus of the Bible and not some manufactured version that didn't live, die, or rise again. There are fundamental doctrines required to classify it as "Christianity."

Some might argue that the Bible disagrees. "The Bible doesn't talk about doctrine," they might say. It's not true, of course. The basic function of the Church is "the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 4:12-13). Notice how Paul ties together both "the unity of the faith" (right thinking) with "the work of service." A "mature man" is one who has both. The result of this kind of maturity is "we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine" (Eph 4:14). Maturity -- right thinking and right living -- protects us from "every wind of doctrine." Paul tells Timothy, "In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following" (1 Tim. 4:6). Clearly "sound doctrine" was important to Paul. Elders are supposed to have it (Titus 1:9). Teachers are supposed to teach it (Titus 2:1). And in the last days it will not be endured (2 Tim. 4:3).

There is this interesting call of Paul on Titus that should, again, string these two together. "In all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine , dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach, in order that the opponent may be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us" (Titus 2:7-8). See that? Both orthopraxy and orthodoxy. You see, to do right, you have to know what's right. And to do it right, you have to know about it.

Now consider this. When you read through a comprehensive book like Paul's Epistle to the Romans, you find an interesting structure. Paul spends 11 chapters explaining what -- doctrine. He lays out right thinking. Finally, after all that, he gets to a turning point at the beginning of Chapter 12: "Therefore." After having laid out orthodoxy, he offers orthopraxy. In fact, he lays out orthodoxy as the proper motivation for orthopraxy. Look at many of Paul's letters and you'll see the same pattern: orthodoxy first, orthopraxy second. It's something like this: "Love your neighbor. Why? Because you are so greatly loved by God." You see, it is only on the basis of the truth (orthodoxy) that you can do the right thing (orthopraxy). Doctrine informs practice. Correct practice is predicated on correct thinking.

We are called to right practice and right thinking. Don't give up on one over the other. Don't minimize one for the other. And whatever you do make sure you don't fall in the category of not being able to endure sound doctrine. Right thinking about the truths of God and His Word are vital for the believer. Don't let anyone talk you into thinking otherwise.