Doctrine is so important that the Bible tell us of those who don't teach according to sound doctrine will be punished in eternal damnation. But also Humility is important because the Bible says in Psalm 138:6 “Though the LORD is on high, Yet He regards the lowly; But the proud He knows from afar.” We live in an age where you cannot be humble and believe in sound doctrine at the same time, or if you are doctrinally outspoken, you are not humble or if you are humble, you won't be that vocal about your beliefs.
Let me explain myself, we live in a postmodern world where something means anything to everybody and that in someone's worldview love can mean that you give a heavy metal serenata to someone who goes to an independent baptist church. So, part of the church is trying to be the cool kid before the world, and it has adopted some postures that has damaged the view of Doctrine and Humility.
How so? Doctrine is undervalued as a the set of rules, or exclusive pastoral intellect and the only reason for studying it, is because you want to be super spiritual/phariseic/legalistic. Humility is mistaken by the simple act of shut up, being laid back and accepting everybody opinions even if they are wrong and heretical sometimes.
The problem is that this is not what the Bible says about it, and we are going to explain this in 3 parts:
1. Doctrine: Is our belief system, is what we believe, when we talk about doctrine it doesn't mean a big theological lecture but it comes down to what we think about God, what we think about Jesus and self. There is only two main doctrines in this world: Christianity and any other form of man made religions that can exist in this world. Our doctrine determines our view about God and also our practical devotion to Him. See, you can talk about your experiences but the question comes down to how much of what you've experienced is biblically grounded.
Being doctrinal is not just being intellectual but is studying the word of the God we love in order to worship Him. There is a lot of warning against those who preach and encourage bad doctrine because to twist the words of the scripture is to twist what God wants to tell us. So doctrine is important because it help us to understand who God is in His Majesty, who we are in light of that Majestic God, what we deserve in light of our sin and how we can come to have fellowship with this amazing God.
2. Humility: is our attitude on how we feel about ourselves. How much you think about yourself tells us how important you think you are. In Christianity, there is a great gain to not think about self at all, but to think to be like Jesus. Blessed are the poor in spirit because the absence of self importance is the catalyst to faith in Jesus, a spiritual person who is poor in spirit is filled with Christ. So humility speaks also about our view and our submission to the person of Jesus Christ, because if we are full of self then we won't see our need for Him unless our self dependence is tear down.
2.a. Humility and the outgoing: so humility its reflected by how we treat others, so sometimes the humble thing to do for the outgoing personality is not to hide his personality but to renounce to self. Speaking out of humility and love for others and not just because you like to be the center of attention. The sound doctrinal person is called to humility in order to edify others.
2.b. Humility and the introvert: this is the other side, those who don't speak must be humble enough to be bold in order to speak when they ought to speak. For humility in them is not to be lay back since that's their comfort but to step out for the sake of others. They may seem humble if they say nothing at all but it actually may be their flesh finding comfort in their quietness.
3. Doctrinal Humility: after defining what both of them mean, we can say that doctrinal humility is to see doctrine for the purpose God intended for it. I know that sometimes what we know can take us to think too much of ourselves but we need to be humble and that humility comes by understanding doctrine correctly. What we understand about God in our doctrine will lead us to have a certain way to look at self, so if you doctrine is leading you to pride then you are not understanding it correctly even though you read the right books and hold the right confessions.
As we study who God let us not waste our time saving our knowledge for a debate battle but use it to worship Him for who He is. You don't put worms next to a big peace of the finest steak so don't put the worms of your pride next to the wisest and finest words of wisdom from God. Because what we learn is not about ourselves but about Him, your worship, your diligence to study the scriptures and prayer is the evidence of how much you believe what you know.
Let us persevere in being faithful to hold the thoughts of who He say He is, even if we live in a post modern age where the majority of the church makes a big deal of things that don't matter and underestimate those which matter. That's why we will have people complaining about music style for worship but never questioning the soundness of the preaching or of the lyrics of the songs we sing at church. We will have people counting and boasting on decisions but we won't give attention to how much of them have been truly saved. We carry a lot of fire but little light, a lot of excitement but not much instruction, let us be doctrinal but humble, read your word and pray, know God and worship Him, study Christ and submit to Him.
