I have been using I Timothy 4:13-16, so I will seek to finish with that passage in this writing: “Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine: continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.”
I will basically cover the idea in verse 16, which gives Paul’s words to Timothy concerning the matter of taking heed to himself. Perhaps all believers would do well to take a “self-check” examination every day, and perhaps several times a day, to see how they are doing, and I am including myself in this matter. It is easy enough for any of us to be tempted to “go with the flow” of those around us. Perhaps a good rule of thumb would be that we make our closest friends the people who think much the same way we do concerning spiritual matters. No, we do not need to neglect the worst of sinners in the matter of being kind and helpful to them, and especially in the matter of giving the gospel to them. We must, however, be careful that we do not get drawn into some of their practices that are against the teaching of God’s Word, for that will cause us to lose our testimony with them. We can befriend the ungodly, but we cannot practice the wrong things that some of them practice! So, we all have to “take heed to ourselves”, lest we be so much like the ungodly that we have no testimony among them!
Paul also told Timothy to take heed to the doctrine. Now I realize that when I use the word “doctrine” some people may think, “Oh no, I do not want to get into any doctrinal matter”. The fact is, however, that if we teach the Bible, or even an English book, we are going to teach some kind of “doctrine”, for “doctrine” simple means: “a teaching”, and even President Monroe had his “Monroe Doctrine”. Paul gave Timothy a warning to take heed to himself and to the doctrine that he believed and taught. I have heard preachers, and even churches, say, “Oh we do not want to get into doctrine”. I am sure they were not aware of the implication of what they were saying, for anything taught long enough becomes a doctrine. If I say, “Jesus saves”, that is a doctrine. It is important, however, that our doctrine squares with the Bible, so that we are not teaching personal philosophy instead of Bible truth. So, Paul warned Timothy to be careful that he continued to teach and preach the right doctrine. I do realize that different churches of different denominations do have some variation one from another concerning doctrine, so perhaps we could at least come to terms on the point that certain doctrines are more important than others. For example, the doctrine that teaches the necessity of Jesus death on the cross as the full payment for our sins is a cardinal doctrine that all churches should hold and teach. There are other less important doctrines that we might be able to live with, and still not fully embrace.
Paul told Timothy that he could both save himself and those who might hear him, if he would take heed to his personal demeanor and the right doctrine. So, some doctrines are cardinal to the matter of salvation and Christian living, while others may not be as important, yet all our doctrines should “square with the Bible”. The problem lies in the fact that we do not all understand the Bible alike. I think we do have to “make allowances” for the fact that all of us have not been exposed to the same teaching, or had the same experiences, however, the Bible does not teach one thing for one person and another thing for another, if both are considering the same passage of Scripture. So, all Scripture has one interpretation, but perhaps several applications. More than that we are all “still in school”, in that we do not know all about the Bible, thus we are still learning, so we need to be patient with one another in “the classroom”. By J. Briggs King