What is “sound doctrine” and why is it important?

"But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine" (Titus 2:1 NKJV)

Doctrine. That very word used to scare the wits out of me. I had heard of various people who had gone to bible school and had lost their faith as a result of that so naturally I made the conclusion that 'doctrine', or whatever I thought that was, was something that I would stay far away from. I perceived doctrine to be not life giving; a practice that just uses the mind to try to understand God (who I had thought was completely not understandable) and was also dry and boring. I also saw how various people would use 'doctrine' to wrongfully 'bash' people and cause division and strife. I wanted nothing to do with that. I wanted the fun stuff; the miracles, signs and wonders and just be contented with that. Then I hit a brick wall. I could not stand for myself when my faith was tested or when I came across hard questions. I just ignored them; moved on, embraced ignorance and kept saying, 'I'll never understand', when the fact was I had never opened myself to going deep into the study of His word. So when I felt I was challenged by God to embrace 'doctrine', I knew that this from Him. He wanted me to be a student of His word and to grow in the knowledge of Him.

"Sound doctrine" really mean "healthy teaching". The sound doctrine that Paul was encouraging was simply teaching that would bring the fellowships in the places that he was writing to (Ephesus and Crete) to healthy maturity as disciples of Jesus. This is something that all of us should desire to; to become mature in our faith. There has to come a point in our lives where we desire the 'meat' of the word once we've grown past the 'milk' stage. Our lives were never meant to stagnate with knowledge of the past; but to mature with new revelation daily in order to keep the tree of our hearts growing by the streams of living waters. I'm not saying that we should chuck everything we know in the past away, but to not allow ourselves to stagnate, to be contented with just the little bit that we know and be ignorant about matters of our faith. Paul writes it well in the letter to the Hebrews, "So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding". (Heb. 6:1 NLT). Paul understood the maturing process; that as child thinks like a child and understands like a child, a man should think and understand as a man and put his childish ways behind him (1 Corinthians 13:11).

This, among other reasons, was why I chose to go to bible school. I was no longer satisfied with 'second hand' knowledge. I wanted to find God for myself in His word and let His word speak to me. I wanted to dive deep in His word and open up my heart to receive His love. I realized, the more you grow in the knowledge of God, the more you fall in love with Him. And that is the purpose of it all.

Japheth Chew