Keep a close eye on yourseld and your doctrine - Tuesday with Timothy #61

1 Timothy 4:16  Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.

You have to keep an eye out and pay attention to your own soul. Just because you stand behind a pulpit and expound God's Word doesn't mean you are above and beyond the dangers you warn other people about. You urge people to read the Bible. Do you read devotionally? Do you spend time with the Lord? Do you read for your own benefit? You urge people to pray and teach people how to pray. Do you spend time in prayer? You plead with souls to flee sin and temptation. Do you run from sin in your own life? You preach the gospel to others, do you preach it to yourself? Take heed of your soul. Take heed of your body. Take heed of your life. How you talk, how you walk, what you do alone, what you do at work. Do you rest and how do you rest? Take heed how you treat other people and how you interact with other people.

Take heed unto your doctrine. Stay sharp in the Word. Keep studying, keep growing. The worst thing a man can do is think that he has arrived and knows everything. You will never reach the end of the unsearchable riches of Christ. You will never have come to the place where you are out of danger from becoming unbalanced. Take care that your doctrine stay true. Going off course just a inch won't matter much in  the space of a mile's hike. Consider the following from Tim Enochs:

 "I have a friend named Larry who is a retired Air Force Pilot. One day he shared with me an interesting fact about flying. He said that, for every single degree you fly off course, you will miss your target landing spot by 92 feet for every mile you fly.

That amounts to about one mile off target for every sixty miles flown.

If you decided to start at the equator and fly around the earth, one degree off would land you almost 500 miles off target.

So, the longer you travel off course, the further you will be from the intended target"

That is why sequential exposition is needful in any ministry. By working your way through an entire book, not only do you get the meaning of the text, but you are getting the whole counsel of God. Regularly check to make sure your current line of thinking is lining up with the Word of God. Systematic study and preaching is also needed. When it comes to theology proper or prophetic passages, a systematic understanding is necessary. Recently it was shown that some men in evangelical conservative ranks had a flat out wrong understanding of the Trinity. The Trinity is a doctrine that must be preached and believed, and you will need a systematic study to see what God has revealed in His Word concerning this truth. It's easy to get caught up in a movement or get engrossed in one aspect of theology and neglect the whole counsel of God. Take care that your preaching is true to God's Word and not true to your opinion. That it's not a soapbox to get some things off your chest, but preaching God's Word to God's people.

Continue in this. Always be watching yourself and watching your doctrine. Keep a close eye on your soul. Keep a close eye on your preaching. By doing this, you'll save yourself and others. Might seem a tad selfish, being focused on yourself. Not at all. Think about it, as a preacher, you are teaching and leading other people. If you start slipping, what is going to happen to the people you are teaching? By keeping an eye on your soul, and keeping sharp in your doctrine, you are going to be a blessing to those that follow you and those sit under your preaching. Keeping an eye on your inner life and your doctrine will save you from the consequences of sin in this life, from false doctrine, from the consequences of bad teaching or superficial teaching.