Quotes about Doctrine

It is a thoroughly anti-Christian doctrine that the Spirit of God, and therefore the life and governing power of the Church, resides in the ministry, to the exclusion of the people.

Lutheranism restricted itself to an exclusively ecclesiastical and theological character, while Calvinism put its impress in and outside the church upon every aspect of human life.

True zeal is connected with a holy life. It is remarkable how often the greatest zealots for God, the Church, and sound doctrine (as they regard it), have been unholy and even immoral in their lives.

The Jewish faith in Jesus' day was dominated by rabbis—teachers of the law. Their doctrine was thorough. Jesus told them, "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life" (John 5:39—40, italics added). They knew the written word of God very well, but not the living Word, even as he stood before them.

We may have sound doctrine, but with little fellowship with the Lord, our hearts quickly grow cold.

But how can we effectively represent Christ, who in sacrificial love gave his life for others, if we don't deeply care about those he died for? And since "God is love" (1 John 4:8), doesn't it follow that the one great distinguishing characteristic of Christians everywhere should be a self-sacrificing love for people? Doctrine, apologetics, spiritual gifts, and prophecy charts are all great, but God is love. Without love, everything becomes meaningless (1 Cor. 13).

The drift away from the Bible has weakened the church.

Good masters teach good doctrine, but that taught by evil masters is wholly evil.

The historical orthodox Christian faith is extremely wide and diverse.

The New Testament doesn't present Jesus as a single man to cover up his humanity. It presents him as a single man because... he was a single man.

If people take seriously doctrines such as the divinity of Christ, it is not primarily because they can treat them as if they were tidy conclusions to an argument, deductions from readily available evidence, but because — however obscurely they are grasped, however challenging the detail — they see that the language of doctrine holds together a set of intractably complex questions in a way that offers a coherent context for human living.

Besides, Christianity is not a doctrine to be taught, but rather a life to be lived.