July Roundup: Sound Doctrine (Part 4), Advice for Leaders, and On Calling Balls and Strikes.

Written By Kerry & Becky

Harriet Tubman’s Advice for Leaders: Stop and Listen

I was reading a story about Harriet Tubman recently and found one of her habits and consistent practices fascinating, intuitive, and wise.

As you know, Tubman was an American abolitionist and social activist. After escaping slavery, Tubman became a famous “conductor” in the Underground Railroad (UGRR) and made many dangerous missions to rescue other enslaved people.

It is reported that when guiding slaves to freedom she would often stop and quietly listen.

She said she was listening to God, listening for dogs, and listening to the condition of her people, the fugitives she was leading to freedom.

What a wonderful practice and what wonderful advice for leaders, especially church leaders today! We must listen too!

We must stop and listen to God.

We are ineffective as leaders if we don’t slow down our service to others and listen to God. What do we hear from our Father? What is he saying to us in scripture, in our time of reflection with him, in prayer, through godly people who influence our lives? What do we hear from God? If we are not in tune with him we will not lead effectively.

We also need to stop and listen for dogs.

Although dogs are beloved pets to many today, New Testament references often use the term “dogs” metaphorically to refer to people who were seen as unfaithful to God and morally corrupt. As leaders we must listen for wolves and “dogs” who would do harm to those we nurture, shepherd, and lead. We listen for divisive gossips, for immoral, harmful trends, for ungodly influences and then respond to protect those we serve and lead.

And we must stop and listen to the condition of the people we love and care for.

We listen with our hearts and with wise eyes. We listen to their despair, their longings, their exhaustion, and loss of faith. We listen to their pain and suffering. We offer care, support, prayer, and help when the days are dark and fear becomes a wedge between them and God.

Harriet Tubman was a great woman but she was also a great leader of people. I am grateful for her example of how to listen well to those we are called and blessed to serve.

—Becky

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What Is “Sound Doctrine”? (Part Four)

** If you are new to this blogpost series, here are the previous posts for reference: Part 1, 2, 3.

What constituted “sound doctrine” for the Apostle Paul?I’m in pursuit of the answer to that question.

Thus far, I’ve investigated Paul’s use of that term in two of the four places where it is found in the Pastoral Epistles. I’ve examined 1 Timothy 1:10 and 2 Timothy 4:3.

Regarding the latter, I’ve come to believe that the sound doctrine which Paul believed people would not put up with is equivalent to the word or message which he solemnly urged Timothy to proclaim. I’ve concluded that the content of “sound doctrine” in 2 Timothy 4:3 and the content of “the word” in 2 Timothy 4:2 are the same.

Of course, this begs yet another question, doesn’t it? What did Paul mean by “the word”?

To answer that question I determined to examine other passages in Paul’s writings, passages in the book of Acts where Luke describes what Paul proclaimed in his missionary activity, and other passages in Acts. Typically, cross-referencing passages in the Bible helps us to understand the meaning of a particular text.

In this post, I’m focusing on what may have constituted “the word” in Paul’s letters. If I can understand from those writings what he meant when he wrote about “the word” or “the word of God” I believe that will inform what he believed constituted sound doctrine. I invite you to consider the following sacred writings with me!

To begin this investigation we first would need to turn to a concordance or lexicon to find the occurrences of the words, “word,” or “word of God.”

I turned to my Greek lexicon. Here are the relevant passages that I found:

  • Romans 9:6: In this passage, Paul is trying to explain Israel’s rejection of the Messiah when he writes, “It is not as though the word of God had failed.” What do you think “the word of God” is in this passage? After looking at the context, it seems to me that Paul is referring to what God had said to or what he had promised Israel.

I took down Leon Morris’ commentary on Romans from my bookshelf and found these comments interesting:

“God’s word here means all God’s promises to Israel. It is not often used in this sense in the New Testament (being more commonly a way of referring to the gospel), but there can be no doubt as to the meaning here” (The Epistle to the Romans, 352).

  • 1 Corinthians 1:18: What is the word or message in this passage? Paul writes that it is about the cross. In the preceding verse he acknowledges that Christ sent him, not to baptize, but to “proclaim the gospel.” Soon after, he informs the Corinthians that he came proclaiming the “mystery of God,” although not in lofty words or wisdom in 1 Corinthians 2:1. Then, he adds: “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (2:2). It seems to me that “the word” in v. 17 is equivalent to the gospel, the mystery of God, and the message of Jesus Christ and his death. What do you think?

  • 1 Corinthians 15:2: In this passage, Paul reminds the Corinthians that they are being saved, “if you hold firmly to the word or message that I proclaimed to you.” What did he proclaim to them? The good news (v. 1) and what he spells out in verses 3-8: “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”

  • Acts 18:5 also informs us as to what Paul proclaimed in Corinth: “When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with proclaiming the word, testifying to the Jews that the Messiah was Jesus.”

It seems clear that the meaning of “the word” in 1 Corinthians 15:2 and Acts 18:5 is a reference to the gospel, the message of Jesus. Is this how you understand it?

  • 2 Corinthians 4:2: Paul must surely have false teachers in mind when he writes: “We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word.” Our question is: What exactly did Paul refuse to falsify? Was it the gospel, which he mentions in the very next verse? (4:3). According to verse 4, others were keeping people from “seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,” but Paul declares: “We proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord” (v. 5). So, perhaps “God’s word” in 2 Corinthians 4:2 is another reference to the gospel or message of Jesus.

  • Philippians 1:14: Here, Paul asserts that his imprisonment actually motivated some of the brothers to “speak the word with greater boldness and without fear.” (By the way, you may have a footnote in your Bible that reads “other ancient manuscripts read word of God, instead of the word.) What was “the word” those other brothers were boldly proclaiming while Paul was in prison? After reading verse 12, where Paul states that what had happened to him had actually helped to spread the gospel, it seems to me that the word they were proclaiming with such boldness was the gospel. What do you think?

  • Colossians 1:25: Paul notes that God commissioned him to make the word of God fully known. What is the word of God in this passage? Is it “the mystery that had been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints”? (v. 26). Is it what “God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory”? (vv. 26,27). Is it what Paul said he and his team members proclaimed in verse 28: “It is he (Christ) whom we proclaim”?

  • Colossians 4:3: Paul writes: “At the same time pray for us as well that God will open to us a door for the word, that we may declare the mystery of Christ, for which I am in prison, so that I may reveal it clearly, as I should.”There seems little doubt in my mind that in this passage the word is the mystery of Christ.

  • Titus 1:3: Paul introduces his letter to Titus by writing that “in due time God revealed his word through the proclamation with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior.” What was the proclamation that had been entrusted to Paul? See Colossians 1:25 and Ephesians 3:1-7.

In Equipped for Change: Studies in the Pastoral Epistles, James Thompson explains Paul’s words in 1:1-3 by saying that Paul is an apostle “for the sake of a message” (87). That message is the Christian message, the gospel.

  • Titus 1:9: Here, Paul writes that an elder must have “a firm grasp of the word that is trustworthy in accordance with the teaching, so that he may be able both to preach with sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict it.”

We all desire that the church’s elders have a firm grasp of scripture, but is Paul instructing elders to have a firm grasp of scripture or of the Christian message? We might well ask what Paul is considering “trustworthy” in this passage. 1 Timothy 1:15 might help us. Other passages in Titus might help us, e.g., Titus 1:10-16, 2:11-14, and 3:4-7. These passages seem to imply that it is the Christian message that elders must know and understand. What do you think?

Again, here is James Thompson on this text in Titus:

“What the elders actually teach is suggested by the many occasions when Paul tells Titus, ‘Declare these things; exhort and reprove with all authority’ (Titus 2:15). These teachers do not give university lectures. The content of their teaching is suggested by the Pastoral Epistles themselves: they give lessons on Christian conduct; they recall the Christian message. We note how often the basic preaching is repeated. ‘The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’ (1 Tim. 1:15). ‘For us there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all.’ (1 Tim. 2:5-6). ‘Great indeed is the mystery of our religion.’ (1 Tim. 3:16). These teachers are to know the basic Christian story” (88-89).

  • Titus 2:5: Here, Paul urges younger women to conduct themselves in certain ways so that “the word of Godmay not be discredited.” What is the word of God which Paul does not want discredited? The message of Titus 2:11-14 and 3:4-7? I think that is very likely! What do you think?

Finally, I want to take a look at a passage which may or may not have been written by the Apostle Paul:

  • Hebrews 4:12: “Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Now, in this passage the author seems to understand the word of God as referring to God’s written word since he cites Psalm 95 in his argument.

On this passage, Neil Lightfoot writes: “The thrust of this passage is that God’s written word, which tells of Israel’s fall, must be heeded. It is no dead letter. It cannot be trifled with (cf. Deut. 32:46,47).” (Jesus Christ Today: A Commentary on the Book of Hebrews, 98).

He also adds this comment on “the word of God” in verse 12:

“The argument throughout refers either to the word preached (4:2, literally, “the word of hearing”) or to the word written (3:7, 15, 4:4, 7, 8). The passage, therefore, must be seen as a warning to the readers that God’s word—by implication, every word of God—demands undistracted attention” (103).

Alright. Where does this long trail through Paul’s use of “the word” in his epistles lead us ? What’s the bottom line?

It seems to me the most likely interpretation of Paul’s understanding of “the word” is that it is tantamount to the gospel, the story of Jesus, and the Christian message. It seems to me that there is a preponderance of evidence to suggest this. But, how do you see it?

There may be some passages that see the “the word” as “God’s written word.” But, for me, the bulk of the evidence seems to support Paul’s understanding of “the word” as being the gospel.

So, when Paul solemnly urged Timothy to “Preach the word” (2 Timothy 4:2), I believe he was urging him to proclaim the gospel.

OK. Let’s think about this for a time…

I’m not finished with Paul’s understanding of “the word,” but I think we all have enough to digest for now. In the next post in this series I want to look into some of the references to “the word” in the book of Acts. And, I want to say more about 2 Timothy 4:2 before leaving behind what Paul meant there by, “Preach the word.”

I hope you are not weary of this study. ❤️ It’s an important one for me, and I thank you for hanging in here with me through this long post and series! And, as always, I welcome your thoughts. I wouldn’t mind your prayers, either!

—Kerry

👉 Again, I would be pleased to hear your thoughts on these posts! Hit reply, or send me an email.

On Trying to Call Balls & Strikes from the Bleachers

Now that it’s baseball season, I’ve been thinking about something I once heard a big-league umpire say. (I’ve also been thinking about how bad my Royals look, but that’s another matter! )

That home plate umpire remarked that he could never understand how fans who were sitting hundreds of feet behind home plate, not to mention those sitting in the outfield bleachers, could see better and judge more accurately than he, when he was never more than seven feet away!

That statement has application to life, doesn’t it! It applies to the way people sometimes treat others.

I’m sure each of us could say (I know I could) that we have been guilty of calling strikes on people and making judgments about them when we were so far away from their situation that there was no possible way we could know what they were going through. Consequently, this put us in no position to make a proper judgment of any kind.

This reminds me of something Jesus said: “Don’t judge others, or you will be judged. You will be judged in the same way that you judge others” (Matthew 7:1,2).

Before we misinterpret what Jesus said, I should add two things:

  1. In this text, Jesus is condemning the fault-finder and hyper-critic. He is predicting that those who are always finding fault with others will one day get what’s coming to them.

  2. He is not saying that we should never make judgments of others. Indeed, there are times when we must, in order to protect those we love from people who would harm them. (See Matthew 23; 1 Corinthians 5:9-6:5; Galatians 1:8,9; and 2 John 9,10.)

It’s when we are not in a position to judge, and we judge harshly, that our Lord’s words condemn us.

Moreover, just as we wouldn’t accept the judgments of an umpire who stood several hundred feet from home plate, neither should we hastily accept the conclusions that people, who are too far from a situation to know the facts, draw about others.

Perhaps we should just admit that judging others is way above our pay grade and leave that to God.

—Kerry

Kerry & Becky
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June Roundup: Deconstructing Faith and Sound Doctrine (Part 3)