Make Sure to Teach them Doctrine

As the calendar looks forward to October, we find ourselves almost a month into starting a new school year. It is a new year full of pressures to pick out the right clothes, study the right subjects, choose the proper extracurricular activities, and make good choices about the friend we will be and the friends they will have. As parents, teachers, coaches, and leaders in our community, we have a responsibility among all of our children to make sure that in the midst of the hustle and bustle of education and activities, our kids learn the most important material they will study, the doctrine and theology of the Scriptures.

This was a pressing concern for God with His people and their families all the way back at the beginning of the Old Testament when He gave this instruction:

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:4-9

There was an expectation for the families of God to learn about God and worship Him as the one, true, and living God. This expectation continues today as we seek to continue to honor the Lord. While not an exhaustive list here are a few areas where we can make sure the children around us are learning the doctrine and theology of the Scriptures.

Let God’s Word Guide You

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 119:105

Not everyone needs to read deep, big books on theology. In fact, if we haven’t read our Bible it is a good idea to put down the theology book and pick up the Bible. As Spurgeon would say, “Visit many good books but live in the Bible.” The Bible is what informs our theology and not the other way around. If we are not careful, we will have supposed deep theology but it is not connected to the Word of God. That is dangerous. We need to be people of the Book. So as we make our way to help those around us understand doctrine, we need them to see our dependence on the Bible. In fact, this is the model we want our kids to pick up from us.

Every Sunday I try to make it around the entire campus of Crossway to greet people and let them know how happy we are that they have joined us at church. On my walkthrough of the building there is one classroom that I must confess is my favorite. It is down in our children’s area and on the window pane of the classroom is my favorite question, “What does the Bible say?” I pray that is the legacy that all of us will be committed to leaving behind to the future generations of the church.

Hide God’s Word in Your Heart

Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You. Psalm 119:11

Along the lines of following the Word of God is followed closely through the discipline of memorizing God’s Word. If we want to make sure that our children learn proper doctrine and theology then they must have a firm grasp of the Word when they have a copy of the Scriptures or when they find themselves in a situation where they do not have a copy of the Scriptures nearby them. The other aspect of this has to do with the way in which they live. We cannot expect our kids who know Christ to live like Christ if they are not walking in the Spirit. One of the ways that they can be trained in practical righteousness is to hide God’s Word in our hearts.

Sit Under Sound Teaching

But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine: 2 that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience; 3 the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things— 4 that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.6 Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded, 7 in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, 8 sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you. Titus 2:1-8

Paul teaches Titus the principle of multi-generational discipleship here in Titus 2. The key is for the older men and women to instruct them in the ways that are proper to live a life that is pleasing to God. Therefore, it holds that we should do the due diligence of making sure that our children are instructed by us but also that they sit under sound teaching. This is the great both/and of influencing our children in the ways that the Lord would have them to go. It is not the church and its leaders or the parents; rather, it is both of them working together to accomplish effective growth in godliness. When we are committed to this process we will see our kids flourish in spiritual development like never before.

Conclusion

One pastor famously made the claim that we are all theologians and the only option is to be a good one or a bad one. Our future leaders both in the church and outside of the church need to be rooted and grounded in the truth. So it is imperative that we take our responsibility to educate our children in the way of the Lord seriously. There is one important note left to make and it comes from Spurgeon one more time: “Train up a child in the way he should go- but be sure you go that way yourself.”

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