It’s been my experience that, for a certain segment of the body of Christ, the word “doctrine” is like a cold shower . . . it just shuts them down. Mention doctrine and they think academia . . . focus too much on doctrine and they think legalism . . . try and talk doctrine and they want to talk about “practical Christianity.” Now, to be sure, there’s also a segment of the body of Christ that seems to leverage doctrine as a means to elevate themselves in their knowledge . . . that seem to love God’s teaching more than God’s people . . . that seem to struggle to get from interpretation to application. But, having said that, I’m convinced that right living only comes from right teaching . . . that apart from sound doctrine, walking in a manner worthy of our calling will be allusive.

The first 10 verses of Titus 2 have me thinking about sound doctrine this morning. The word “doctrine” is found 3 times in this short passage. Simply, doctrine equates to teaching, instruction, precepts. Titus was to “speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine” and these “things” concerned the behaviors becoming for older men, older women, young women, and young men. Far from being detached from the practical living out of their faith, sound doctrine was the basis for exhorting older men to be sober and reverent and loving and patient (2:2) . . . for encouraging older women to not be slanderers nor given to much wine (2:3) . . . for teaching young wives to love their husbands and children (2:4) . . . to require the young men to be of sound judgment . . . all these behaviors were based on solid teaching . . .on sound doctrine.

Paul further cheers on Titus not just to “talk the talk” but to “walk the walk” . . . there was to be no “Do as I say, not as I do” approach in proclaiming the word of God . . . rather, “in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity and reverence” (2:7). The teaching of the things of God are to be done with integrity . . . and that begins with the teacher “owning it” himself before he instructs others to do so. It’s also about handling the Word of the Living God with a certain amount of fear, awe, respect, and honor . . . about being honest with oneself on what the word says . . . avoiding any inclination to wrap the Word around our preconceived ideas and biases.

To separate sound doctrine from sound living is foreign to the Scriptures. The purpose of right teaching is right conduct. To think that we can “preach it” without doing it is hypocrisy. To think that we can “do it” without knowing what “it” is, is arrogance. All believers need to be students of the Word. To the degree of our God given cognitive ability and by the Spirit Teacher who lives within us, we need to pursue sound doctrine in order to realize right living.

The last thing I notice in this passage is a bit of circular dynamics that goes something like this . . . sound doctrine results in right living and right living makes sound doctrine attractive. Paul tells Titus to exhort believers who are bondservants “to be obedient to their own masters . . . well pleasing in all things . . . not pilfering, but showing all good faith, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.” (2:10). Paul says here that our behaviors can “adorn” or “embellish” the teaching of salvation. There is nothing that “dresses up” the teaching of Christianity more than Christians who are living it out. Our consistent pursuit of the sound doctrine and consistent application to right living has a way of being a garnish on the truths found in Scripture.

Sound doctrine can ring true but seeing it lived out practically by Christians can be very attractive. Not that we’re perfect . . . but even in our failures there is a right way to deal with them based on sound doctrine that allures the heart crushed by guilt or the soul plagued by insufficiency. As our lives are really transformed through the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12:2) it has a way of “adding luster to the teaching of our Savior God” (MSG).

Oh, that the church would embrace the call to “dress up” sound doctrine . . . to pursue good teaching and then, in obedience, determine, by God’s grace and power, to live it out that they may adorn sound teaching in all things . . . for the sake of a lost world . . . and for His glory . . . amen!