"Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers" (Titus 1:9)
It would be impossible to overemphasize the importance of sound doctrine in the life of a Christian. Right thinking about all spiritual matters is imperative if we would have right living. As men do not gather grapes of thorns nor figs of thistles, so sound character does not grow out of unsound teaching!
The word "doctrine" means simply religious beliefs held and taught. It is the sacred task of all Christians, first as believers and then as teachers of religious beliefs, to be certain that these beliefs correspond exactly to truth.
A precise agreement between belief and fact constitutes soundness in doctrine. We cannot afford to have less.
Each generation of Christians must look to its beliefs. While truth itself is unchanging, the minds of men are porous vessels out of which truth can leak and into which error may seep to dilute the truth they contain.
When men deal with things earthly and temporal, they demand the truth; only in religious thought is faithfulness to truth looked upon as a fault!
Increasing numbers of evangelical Christians are becoming ashamed to be found unequivocally on the side of truth, but moral power has always accompanied definitive beliefs. We need right now a return to a gentle dogmatism that smiles while it stands stubborn and firm on the Word of God that liveth and abideth forever!
~A. W. Tozer~
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