The Teaching That Accords With Godliness

If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, (1 Timothy 6:3-4)

This may seem harsh of Paul, but it’s true: anyone who doesn’t believe the doctrine Paul laid out in the previous couple of verses, – i.e. that widows ought to be treated fairly, and that slaves ought to obey their masters; which could be applied today in that workers ought to obey their boss – or who doesn’t “agree” with our Lord Jesus Christ, is doing nothing more than stirring up controversy. So then, in the interest of not stirring up controversy, but rather uniting as believers, let’s look at what our Lord Jesus Christ’s sound words and at the teaching that accords to godliness.

First though, we need to understand what exactly that is. We know that it means agreeing with “the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ”, which means agreeing with the Bible as a whole, but what is the “teaching that accords with godliness”? – Well, we can see that the dictionary definition of “accords” is, “to make agree or correspond”. So, we can gather that this teaching is something that corresponds with godliness; you could even say that it causes it. Going off of this information, what is a teaching that we know of that causes, or directly corresponds with godliness?

Certainly there doctrinal teachings that if obeyed can cause a love for God, or submissiveness, or unity among believers or among a family, but godliness itself? Godliness isn’t something that can be produced, it’s something that has to be put into us. No one is, or can be “Godly” without first having Jesus Christ (who is God incarnate) come into their hearts. So then, what teaching that we know of corresponds with our Lord Jesus Christ coming to live in someone’s heart?

There is only one: The teaching of the Gospel. The teaching that tells us how Jesus Christ came to Earth, died a death we should have died, and then ascended to the right hand of God to intercede on our behalf. This teaching; the teaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is the only teaching which can cause someone to repent and accept Jesus into their lives.

Now, therefore, we see there are three things no one should ever neglect to teach while they are teaching, and they are these:

1. We should never neglect to teach the importance of helping those around us who need help, thereby shining Christ’s light onto those around us.

2. We should never neglect to teach the importance of obedience to the doctrines of the Bible. i.e. we should “agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ”.

3. We should never neglect to teach the Gospel! Which is the only teaching that can bring about true repentance in people.

Source by Joshua W Cleveland

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