This means
that, whatever we teach on anything whatsoever must be consistent with what
sound doctrine has already revealed. It does not matter what new things we face
in life, and how little Scripture seems to speak of these issues, whatever we
teach about them must match what sound doctrine has already presented of the
thoughts and ways of God.[2]
Here is an
illustration that helps me appreciate what it means to teach what accords with
sound doctrine. If someone composed a melody for a beautiful song, and then
wanted to add harmony to that melody, each note of harmony would need to be
consistent with the notes of the melody. The harmony would need to be in the
same key, and follow the same tempo. In each measure, the harmony must follow
the same chord as used for the melody. Just because other chords are used in
the rest of the song, each particular measure has a chord that dictates what
notes may be used to harmonize.
When we read
the Scriptures, and hear the wonderful truths of sound doctrine, it is like hearing
the melody of God’s song. Different parts of the song have different rhythms
and tempos. They all lead to the complete presentation that stirs our hearts in
belonging-love for God and his people, and redemptive love for the world we
live in. The music, and cadence, and tempo of the First Covenant stanza lead wonderfully
into the beauty, and hopefulness and joy of the New Covenant cantata.
We know that
the church is the body of Christ.[3] He
is the head, and he expresses himself through the body as a whole, and through
the individual members of the body in varying ways. Keeping with our
illustration, we can see Jesus as the lead singer who presents the melody of
God’s word with stunning beauty and power. As he calls the church to join him
in his work, or sing with him in his symphony, it is as if we are called to
sing in harmony to every note of the song he has already breathed-out.
Whenever we
need to harmonize to God’s song, we must be consistent with what he has already
played for us. When we write about contemporary issues of life, we cannot make
up a new melody, but bring our understanding of contemporary issues into
harmony with the strong, and clear, and beautiful melody of hope God himself is
already playing.
In practical
terms, this means that we must address the issues of life with consistency to
the revelation of God. Scientific issues may give us many harmonious notes of
music that are not played in the original score of God’s word, and yet bring us
to glorify the original song by adding thoughts that are in such pure and sweet
harmony that there is no doubt the two go together. To see God’s creative
genius in everything science discovers about life and our world, and to know that
this is harmonious with God’s breathed-out description of how he created all
things, is to enjoy the richness of the God-song.
On the other
hand, to allow contradictory beliefs about science to clash with what God has
sung out to us in the sound doctrine of his word is to create such a cacophony
of discordant sounds that people go running into opposing orchestras to focus
on the music they have chosen as best.
Those who
gather to harmonize with the God-song of sound doctrine, find great satisfaction
in the way their lives experience the richness of fellowship between God and
man. Those who gather to rebel against the God-song, become so disconnected
from the original score that they are soon lost in music that is devoid of anything
to do with the God who created humanity, gave us his song, and taught us to
sing.
When God confronted
me with what some of his children were dealing with in sexual abuse memories
and eating disorders, I realized that I did not know how to teach on these
things in a way that would accord with the sound doctrine of Scripture. I
discovered that I was quite adept at teaching sound doctrine itself, but quite
inept at teaching what accords with sound doctrine in relating to such painful
issues of life.
I was like a
man who knew the melody to God’s song quite well, and loved the sound of the
songs of my Father’s heart; I just did not know how to sing harmony! I could
not tell an abused person what to do with the scary dreams, and the immediate
trauma of flashbacks, and the sudden clash between reality and family dynamics.
Scripture was full of the melody of sound doctrine. I would have to learn from
the Composer and Conductor of the song how to sing harmony to the
brokenhearted.
If sexual
abuse issues were out of my singing range, knowing how to sing hope into the
eating disordered world seemed even more perplexing. I knew the melody of hope
in God’s song; I did not know the harmony of hope that would comfort the heart
of someone who wanted to disappear into the pain-free experience of
nothingness. I knew things that God’s song sang out to me about my worth in
Jesus Christ. I did not know how to harmonize with God’s song so that the heart
of worthlessness would hear the harmonies of hope that flowed and poured out of
the music of heaven.
As I became an
apprentice in God’s music school, I began to learn that every harmony had to be
consistent with the melody God had already revealed. I realized that God’s
melody was given to us with the absolute necessity of us joining the song with
our unique gifting, our unique instruments, our unique personalities, and our
unique voices, so that, at every given time, there would be some child of God
somewhere singing in the exact harmony that some heartbroken soul needed to receive.
These harmonies would bring hopeless people to hear the melody of the God-song
and know that God himself was giving them hope.
When churches
only sing the melody of God’s song, they may have great ministries to strong
people who want to know nothing more about life than what they can hear in the
exact and precise notes of sound doctrine itself. At the same time, those
churches that fall in love with their harmonization so much that they lose
connection to the melody of God, attract people who know that the harmonies
touch on things that are deep needs in their hearts, but drift aimlessly in seas
of music that are more discordant and hopeless than they realize.
Those churches
that become so proficient in God’s melody that they can sing the songs of sound
doctrine in harmonies that relate to any and every problem the contemporary
world is facing, develop ministries to people who love Father’s song, and feel
its harmonies transforming their broken hearts.
We can never
forsake the clear and precise melody of God’s sound doctrine; but neither can
we simply read out the word of God as if that is all God has willed. Yes, the
reading of Scripture is necessary,[4]
just as the melody line of the song is necessary. However, God has orchestrated
everything so that his people must sing along in harmony in order for one human
life to bless another.
Paul’s
exhortation to, “teach what accords with
sound doctrine”, lives and moves in our lives today. Pastors who cannot
sing a lick of music with their physical voice, can have lives saturated with
the songs of heaven through their soul-voice. In other words, the teaching and
encouragement that comes out of our souls in ministry to others can be “music
to their ears”, even if we cannot carry a tune if our lives depended on it.
In fact,
pastors should be the lead singer in the church’s soul-music like no one in the
world could ever present.[5]
People should come to churches where they can tell that the pastors are
watching over the deepest issues of their souls,[6]
because they can hear the men of God presenting pitch-perfect harmonies that
touch them right where they are, and bring them to love the divine love song
God has revealed through the sound doctrine of his word.
Of course,
what Paul expressed primarily to pastors who had to watch over the flock of
God, is true of all believers. Whatever we pass on (or sing) to our children,
our families, and the world around us, must be harmoniously consistent with the
sound doctrine of the word of God. And, we should consider it an immense wonder
that God would want to make us partners with him and each other[7] in
making his song known to the world.
From my heart,
Monte
© 2013 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
Titus 2:1
[2]
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9)
[3]
Romans 12; I Corinthians 12
[4]
“Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture,
to exhortation, to teaching.” (I Timothy 4:13) Note that the public reading
of Scripture did not stand on its own. It had to be sung in harmony with
exhortations to live by the word, and teaching how to live in ways that accord
with sound doctrine.
[5]
“28 Come
to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you,
and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest
for your souls. 30 For
my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
(Matthew 11) A study of God’s reference to the care of the soul would lead us
to see how “soul care” under the shepherdly leadership of men who watch over
people’s souls, has to be central to our ministry.
[6]
Hebrews 13:17
[7]
“5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever
abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me
you can do nothing.” (John 15) This picture of the vine and the branches
is a God-inspired picture of how closely Jesus connects us to himself so that
everything that is absolutely true about him, and all that he himself has
recorded for us in his word (illustratively known as “the God-song”), is
expressed through the branch of the church. We are like him, and yet different
from him. Illustrating us singing in harmony to him simply helps me keep the
sameness and differences in a picture I can understand.
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