Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents
Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed – Chapter 12 – Launching the church
Doctrine and the knowledge of God
[Bible references: 1 Corinthians 1:10; 8:1-13; Romans 12:1-8; 15:5-6; Philippians 1:27; 2:2-5; 1 Peter 3:8]
We can see the apostle Paul tackling the issue of doctrine and the knowledge of God in the book of Romans, written in the context of much hostility between Jew and Gentile, where he explains in many different ways how the doctrine of the faith actually binds Jew and Gentile together. Then towards the end of that lengthy exposition he says to be of one mind and accept one another in the same way as Christ who came to serve us and has accepted us.
Unfortunately, in our attempts to become more knowledgeable about doctrine, we get off-balance, forgetting that “love builds up” and instead get caught in the trap of “knowledge puffs up,” starting to think of ourselves “more highly than we ought.” In those same passages that remind us of that trap, we are also reminded of our responsibility to remember God’s grace to us and to remember that we all belong to the same Body of Christ.
Our knowledge gets distorted when we focus on the knowledge of the Biblical text and not the knowledge of the God who gave us the text. Our knowledge of doctrine should not become an end to itself. Our habitual forgetfulness to seek our unity in Christ has led to the claim that “doctrine divides.” However, doctrine, as the properly taught knowledge of God, should lead to unity.
Observe
Read Romans 12:1-8. How can this passage help us handle issues of doctrine?
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