Join us every Sunday morning at 9:15 at Tabernacle Baptist Church for our Men’s Small Group!
Before Sunday’s class, please take the time to read and reflect on the scripture provided and be prepared to participate in the discussion of the assigned questions.
Bobby Jamieson, The Whole Truth about God: Biblical Theology, ed. Mark Dever, 9Marks Healthy Church Study Guides (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012)
Does your church divide itself into “love people” and “doctrine people”?
The “love people” perceive themselves as all about the heart, while the “doctrine people” perceive themselves as being all about the mind. The “love people” are all about helping others, and the “doctrine people” are all about proclaiming the truth. Both sides say to the other, “What we’re doing is what really matters.”
Today, the “love people” are likely to speak loudest and win the biggest hearing. After all, who doesn’t want love? More to the point, who wants a bunch of loveless, cold, dry, abstract ideas when you could have love instead?
MAIN IDEA
In the church, sound doctrine is the basis for our love for one another, and love is the goal of sound doctrine.
CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING PASSAGES
2 John 1–13
1 The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, 2 because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever:
3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, in truth and love.
4 I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. 5 And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. 6 And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. 7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. 9 Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, 11 for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.
12 Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead I hope to come to you and talk face to face, so that our joy may be complete.
13 The children of your elect sister greet you.
1 Timothy 1:3–5 (ESV)
3 As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, 4 nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. 5 The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
It’s clear that both “love people” and “doctrine people” are wrong if they think you can have one and simply ignore the other. Yet what we see in both of these passages is that sound doctrine is the foundation for love. It’s what fuels and enables love, whether love for others or love for God. None of us should have sound doctrine without love, and none of us can truly have love without sound doctrine.