Acts 2:42 - And they devoted themselves to the apostles’
teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
The Christian faith is a teaching and learning faith. In
fact, the last words of our Lord to His disciples in Matthew 28:19 were that
His disciples were “to go and make disciples of all nations”. So it is that the
early church positioned itself to teach and embody the doctrines of they had
learned from Christ so that there was a body of truth called the “apostles’ teaching”.
This was not just mere intellectual grasping of theology but the real theology
hammered out in real life as evidenced in the fact that the believers also
persisted in the fellowship of the apostles. Discipleship is as much about
doctrine as it is about applying that doctrine to our lives. The disciples
watched and learned from the apostles’ lives and thus partook of their
fellowship.
The local church needs to assert herself again as a center
of discipleship in teaching doctrine and spiritual parenting or else she loses
her Kingdom mandate. These are the times when "people will not endure sound teaching, but having
itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own
passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into
myths” (2 Tim 4:3, 4). Moreover, members of the local church need to ask
themselves again if what they are hearing from their pulpits is consistent with
the Bible. Otherwise they will be supporting error and myths that have nothing
to do with the Kingdom of God as we sometimes see on TV. Like somebody said, “if
it’s true it’s not new; and if it’s new, it’s not true”.
May you have a passion for God’s word! May you grow in your doctrinal
understanding! May you live the doctrine that you say you believe! May you grow
in your discernment of errors, heresies, and myths! May you contend for the
true faith of our Lord Jesus Christ!
