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Commentary on "Faith"
Day 6: Thursday, April 9, 2009
Church membership
Today's lesson touches on the tension some Seventh-day Adventists may feel between having faith in the doctrines of Adventism and having faith in Jesus. Indeed, Adventism places strong emphasis on church membership and on believing and obeying the core teachings of the SDA church. Because of this, many people feel a tension between the role of the church and the role of Jesus in their lives -- namely, which comes first?
If there is ever a question of what should have first place in our lives, the answer is Jesus alone. There can only be one first place, as Jesus says:
No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth (Matthew 6:24).
The statement holds true for other things as well. We cannot serve both God and something else -- be it church, family, doctrines, job, or money. The only way to be truly serving God in all the areas of our lives is to surrender our lives to Jesus, including every individual thing in our lives. Jesus calls us--all those who would follow Jesus, those from any religious background--to surrender our church and group membership to Him. Jesus calls us to a pure devotion to Him alone and nothing else -- everything else must go, including church and its teachings (and I'm speaking of my own church as well). We are called first, and only, to a relationship with Jesus based on faith alone in Him, and that means letting all else go.
Jesus speaks of leaving all else behind:
He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me (Matthew 10:37-38).
Doctrines
The author is right when he says, "sound doctrine is essential, but doctrine and theology that remain lifeless theory can save no one. One can be a theologian without being a believer." Paul admonishes Timothy:
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).
To have correct doctrine, we must have a correct Biblical hermeneutic. This means following what Scripture says about itself as we interpret it. Hebrews 1 says:
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world (Hebrews 1:1-2).
This particular passage establishes that God has spoken to us once and for all through Jesus, and this final revelation is more important than any other. It gives us a good start in establishing priorities so that we may "rightly divide the Word of truth". The Bible itself acknowledges that different scriptures are to be treated differently.
The most important aspect of establishing good, Biblically derived doctrines is to follow Scripture's lead in majoring on certain things and minoring on other things. Some major things are: that Jesus is the Son of God and is God; that he died for our sins and was raised on the third day; that we can know we are saved if we trust in Him alone to save us from hell.
The majority of Christians agree that we don't cut off fellowship with other believers over relatively minor differences in belief, such as when Jesus will come (pre-, mid-, or post-tribulation), whether baptism must be by immersion, or the details of how the Lord's Supper should be celebrated. To be sure, these issues are important, and each of us should study diligently and seek the Holy Spirit's help to know the truth; but if another believer differs in opinion over these things, that should not be reason enough to break fellowship with them or look down on them. These are minor issues because the Bible places less emphasis on them.
Summary
- All things in our lives other than Jesus need to be surrendered to His lordship.
- In building our doctrines (our understanding of truth), we need to have a solid method of interpreting the Bible that follows what the Bible says about how it is to be interpreted.
- There are major issues and minor issues in doctrine--again, these are to be established by following the Bible's lead of emphasis
Copyright 2008 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised April 11, 2009. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
The Sabbath School Bible Study Guide and the corresponding E.G. White Notes are published by Pacific Press Publishing Association, which is owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist church. The current quarter's editions are pictured above.
Official Adventist Resources
Standard Edition Study Guide Week 2
Teacher's Edition Study Guide Week 2
