Why Should Churches Draw Doctrinal Boundaries?- Answers for Church Members - April 13
- False teaching harms the church. Paul calls right doctrine “sound” or “healthy” (1 Timothy 1:10; 2 Timothy 4:3 . False teaching, by contrast, is spiritually destructive (2 Peter 2:1).
- False teaching spreads. The New Testament warns us that false teaching spreads like gangrene (2 Timothy 2:17). Churches should draw boundaries for the sake of their health and even their very lives.
- False teaching causes controversy and distracts from ministry. Paul warned Timothy to “have nothing to do with “foolish controversies” (2 Timothy 2:23; cf. Titus 3:9 . There comes a point at which it is no longer wise for a church to continue arguing over certain controversies. Clear boundaries keep a church from getting bogged down in endless quarrels and becoming distracted from its main work.
- Jesus holds us responsible for sound doctrine. The New Testament holds church leaders—and whole churches (Galatians 1)—responsible to silence false teaching in the church (Titus 1:10-11). Jesus rebukes churches that tolerated the presence of false teachers (Revelation 2), including the church at Pergamum, which merely had among them people who held to certain false teachings.
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