Discipleship: What is the Role of Doctrine?

(Edited after first posting. Addendum at end of this post.)

I think most of us agree that knowledge, nor doctrine saves; i.e., salvation is not the reward for having acquired sufficient knowledge or having (or even living) sound doctrine. This observation leads to an uncomfortable situation: What then is the value of doctrine? Why do churches and Christians in churches spend so much time in teaching and preaching (giving and receiving)?

Augustine of Hippo is attributed with saying something to the effect of, "Love God, and then do whatever you want." If salvation is obtained by grace, apart from any knowledge or works, then I think it is right fair and necessary to raise the question of what role doctrine plays in Christianity.

Before I proceed to work through my thoughts on the matter above, here are a few specific observations on this week's lesson (Lesson 7: Preparation for Discipleship).

I was listening to an audio discussion of this lesson earlier in the week and one of the comments made was that this should have been the first lesson of the quarter. I concur with that assessment. Some weeks ago, I was annoyed that I had not, up to that point, encountered the lesson's definition of "disciple." Well, this week we get one. It's on the Sabbath page: "A disciple is a learner/follower of Jesus Christ who constantly seeks to become like the Master." If this was given in the first lesson, would it have averted some of the confusion of the earlier weeks? Perhaps; perhaps not. But it is good to finally get some grounding as to what the lesson defines as a disciple.

There was just one little troubling bit I encountered this week. It has to do with the set of questions at the bottom of Sunday's page. It reads:

How content are you with the work that you are doing for the Lord? Should you be doing more? Could you be doing more? What is holding you back? In most cases, is it not your own pride and selfishness?

Now, I think I understand the intent of these questions... Yet... It seems that the response that these questions are designed to evoke are negative ones; e.g, "I'm not content. I could and should be doing more. Yes, I'm selfish! And here's how..." These questions, from my perspective, are subtly leading. They seem designed to evoke a sense of guilt and shame... I mean, except for the rare individual who has a great deal of confidence and faith, how many are really going to respond, "I'm quite satisfied with my service for the Lord. I'm doing all I have been asked to do. God is not asking me to do anymore." It sounds almost arrogant, does it not? Yet true humility should allow us to answer that way if we are doing what God has asked us to do...

Here's one last musing, having nothing to do with this week's lesson subjects, but strongly related. In the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4), it is interesting to observe that Jesus first requests something from the woman. He opens up to her a need He has before He offers her something she needs. What can a disciple of Jesus learn from this little detail?

Now I return to my musings on the value of doctrine...

In pondering this question, I got to thinking about some possible analogies. Would I want to place myself under the knife of a young person who just made the decision to become a surgeon? Or would I prefer someone who has at least had some internship with an experienced surgeon?

When, say, a high-school graduate decides that he or she wants to be a surgeon, they (not proper English, but repeating "he or she" gets tiresome...) undergo many, many years of training. When that decision is made, they have become a member of the wider world of the medical profession. (Work with me here -- I know things don't quite work like this in the real world -- but for analogy's sake...) I think this is similar to a person making a decision to believe and trust Christ. This person becomes a member of the Christian family. They are saved.

At this point, the budding surgeon to be and the brand new Christian are similar in that they have very limited knowledge and experience of their new world. But they are excited about it, and they can tell others about what they do know. The trouble occurs when they try to go beyond what they already know. If the budding surgeon tries to actually perform surgery, the chance of success is pretty slim. If the brand new Christian tries to teach or do more than they are equipped for, they could actually cause harm to the Christian body.

The only proper thing to do is for the surgeon-to-be to undergo a program of training (or we could even call it, discipleship). It begins with pre-med training, and then medical school, followed by internship and residency and specialized training. Along the way, the medical student goes from just knowledge acquisition to field training. Many years down the line, the student has acquired sufficient knowledge, skills, and experience to qualify them to practice on his own. This step can be likened to a disciple becoming an apostle. Yet the surgeon still requires and should welcome continuing education, because this helps them cope with changes that come about in their practice environment. Most will collaborate with others in order to enhance and assist with their professions.

Likewise, the ideal situation for Christians is to also undergo a program (I don't necessarily mean formal, structured schooling) of discipleship. During this training we acquire knowledge about God, His character, and His purposes. As we do, we also undergo hands-on training where we work together with God to accomplish His purposes by exhibiting His character. As Christians mature, we may spend less time being discipled and more time in the role of an apostle and mentor to younger disciples. But never do we eliminate being discipled. We continue to learn, to be taught, to work with one another to help us refine our portrait of our God. We do this so that we can be more effective in our mentor and apostle responsibilities.

Doctrine is simply teaching. In the gospel accounts, I noticed that Jesus did a lot of teaching of his disciples. Most of it seems to have been the discussion type of teaching. Reading through some of the accounts, it seems that Jesus would have preferred to not have the crowds around so that He could spend more time with His disciples, teaching them.

This observation goes against the grain of the current trend of thought where we often hear that it is more important for Christians to do good works than it is to teach and preach doctrine (or teachings). Perhaps the thing we can take away from this week's lesson is that learning and doing have to be in balance. We continually learn so that we can continually improve our service. God can use misguided efforts by Christians (after all, Paul tells us that "all things work together for good..." Romans 8:28) but wouldn't it be better if our efforts were more closely aligned with God's purposes and character?

So to wrap it up, my conclusion is that doctrine indeed has nothing to do with salvation, but everything to do with a person loving his or her God. Effective doctrine helps us to know how to better love God and leads us to put it into practice.

Addendum: A question I have... If a "doctrine" doesn't actually seem to help us better love God and put that love into practice, is it really a necessary "doctrine?"