Monday April 28, 2014

         

2 Timothy 4:1-11

In St. Paul's letter to Timothy, who was a pastor at the church in Ephesus, we read words of encouragement and warning:  "I solemnly urge you (Timothy):  proclaim the message. . . .The time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. 

But what is doctrine, anyway?  I'm told that the Greek word translated as "doctrine" - the one that is found in the pastoral letters to individuals and congregations in our New Testament - means the "act of teaching or that which is taught".  In the Christian scriptures doctrine seems to mean the teachings about the significance of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.   And that body of teaching develops throughout the pastoral letters and continues to develop!  As David Neff says, "Truth is eternal, but the language of truth - precisely what believers believe, how they summarize it, and what dimensions they emphasize - changes.  Doctrine is conditioned by events and movements." from Who Defines Doctrine, Christianity Today, April 3, 2013.

But if doctrine develops and changes - as it clearly does - and our personal understanding of Christian teachings also develops and matures - as it hopefully does - how can I or anyone else know whether we are following "sound doctrine" or "wandering away to myths"?  

The best advice I have received is that as the church and as individuals we need to pray, study, research, and experience and reflect on life together.  As new doctrine and understanding develop we need to test it out together, and with God's grace, we will grow in our collective understanding of the importance of Jesus' life, death and resurrection and all that means as we are transformed into people who are more Christ-like in our relationships with God, each other, and the world God created.

In the meantime, we need to be humble about the limits of our understanding.  As St. Paul says in his letter to the church in Corinth, "we know only in part . . . for now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face".

As you look back over your Christian journey, how has your understanding of the importance of Jesus' life, death and resurrection changed?  What has that meant for you?

Marilyn Malton