On one occasion, in a Bible study of the church, I asked the congregation there: what does the word grace mean? Everyone replied that it is an undeserved gift from God. The answer seems correct, but technically it is not, since I never asked the meaning of God’s grace, which would be totally different. If we define the word grace by itself, it would be a favor given to us that we do not deserve, in general, in any context, whether Christian or not.
It is important that we understand this, that there are words that must be defined by themselves and that the final touch will be given by the context in which we are speaking. I ask today, what is sound doctrine? This will depend to a large extent on the context in which you find yourself, but the reality is that if we speak in the context of the Christian faith, a single meaning, regardless of our human opinion.
When we think of something “healthy” we believe in something that is working correctly, a practical example can be the human body itself, if we are healthy, it is because we do not have any disease and that makes our body have a good functioning.
On the other hand, the word doctrine is nothing more than a set of ideas, thoughts and principles. Then, when we unite both terms, we would be saying that “sound doctrine” is a set of healthy ideas, thoughts and principles. But as I said earlier, our context is Christianity. Then, we would say that sound doctrine is all biblical thought in its essence, without removing, without putting, all those ideas written in their full context, this leads to that it must be healthy, in good working order, like the human body.
Paul wrote to Timothy about sound doctrine, saying that the time would come when men would not want to listen to sound doctrine, that is, they would not want to hear what the Bible says:
2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
2 Timothy 4:2-4
There are those who have a false definition of what a sound doctrine is, since they associate it with doctrines created by men, but to what the apostle Paul is referring here is far from a merely human doctrine, Paul is speaking of the biblical doctrine , spoken by Christ and the apostles.
And Paul is saying that there will come a time when men will not want to listen to what the Bible says, a time where they will prefer to live with supposed visions and dreams, even further, a time where they will want to live fairy tale.
We are just at that time, a time where many do not want to listen to what the Bible says, where they put above the Bible all kinds of strange doctrines that contradict each other.
Sound doctrine is all that is contemplated in the Bible in its proper context.