'Sound' Doctrine

1 Corinthians 4:20 - "For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power."

I am noticing a trend with my generation of believers (and some others as well): we are really good with our words. We have read enough books and listened to enough podcasts/sermons to sound like seasoned theologians. We can talk for hours on end about Jesus and how Christians should be willing to surrender their lives to Him. We read blog posts and are able to dissect them using Scripture to tell everyone whether we agree or disagree and why. We sound like we have given everything to Jesus.

We have 'sound' doctrine; we believe that our words prove our love for Jesus rather than our actions.

We look for a church that will satisfy our longing for 'solid biblical teaching' but never really find one because we're so good at being critical toward every one that we find. Our conversations consist often of being Gospel centered and missions minded and often times people mistake us for actually practicing what we preach. We think we are proving that we love Jesus by telling everyone why they are doing it wrong (yes I understand the irony in this post).

But when it comes down to it, it's all talk.

I've just come across too many people who sound like they love Jesus but aren't really sold out for Him. They are sold out to the idea of being sold out for Him.

Let me please be clear: I am not saying this is everyone. As a matter of fact, this may be the vast minority. It's just that I keep seeing these people who say they are hungering for Jesus, but they don't stick around. It seems as if they are just searching for someone who will keep talking about Jesus with them and not actually challenge them to start living out what they are saying. It's kind of like the sports fan who analyzes his favorite team and criticizes everything they do and how they play, but yet he has never played a single game in his life; he just knows the right words to say.

Paul said it this way in 1 Corinthians 2:4 - "my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." Paul was saying "I didn't try to talk really fancy so that I could convince you about Jesus, I just let the Spirit work through me in such a way that I practiced what I preached so that you knew it was real.

My heart is just really burdened because I know how easy it is to sound like you love Jesus; but actually loving Him and surrendering to Him takes a level of commitment that many are not willing to embrace. I don't care if you can write a 300 page thesis about how you love Jesus and why He is worth loving; if your life doesn't match that, it's all talk. Again - "the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power."

Our generation seems to be more fascinated with analyzing doctrine and discussing whether or not it's acceptable to drink or cuss as a Christian (to use just a few examples) than we are in advancing the kingdom through the power of Christ at work in us. Again, this is probably the minority, but this thinking is out there and seems to be gaining steam.

If you fall under this category (most of us do at times), then check your heart; do you talk about Jesus more often than you live for Him. Can I point out that our words will follow our hearts, but our hearts seldom follow our words. What I mean is that if you begin to follow Jesus and surrender your life to Him, you won't be able to keep silent. But if your faith consists only of talk right now, don't expect your heart to follow just because you sound committed. It usually doesn't work that way.

If our mission is to make disciples and advance the Kingdom here on earth, it won't happen simply because we know what to say. It will happen through the power of the Holy Spirit in us. Once we are empowered with the Spirit; then we will speak up and our words will bring life and healing, not because of the words themselves, but because of the power of the Spirit.