There are two levels of doctrine in the Bible and in Christianity, the upper and the lower. These affect the heart and mind. The bottom level concerns the state of our heart (as reflected in our practice). The top level concerns the state of our mind (as reflected in our theology). The heart level truly is foundational. We can’t build a doctrinal superstructure that honors God and his word across the board if our heart entertains any loyalty that competes with our loyalty to God and his word.
The bottom layer is addressed in passages like the first chapter of 1st Timothy. In 1:3-6 we read, “As I urged you when I went to Macedonia to stay at Ephesus that you might charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than the godly stewardship [implied] in faith. Now the purpose of this commandment is love out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and unfeigned faith, from which some having swerved have turned aside unto empty talk.”
Untainted love for God and his word. No God-dishonoring motives. No loyalties that compete with our loyalty to God. No unconfessed sin. No pretending to be more or better than we are. Failure in this regard can be disastrous. It will defile our heart and mind.
The top layer is addressed in such passages as 1 Timothy 3:16, “without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels (messengers), preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up in glory.” Here we have the incarnation, the resurrection, the great commission, and the ascension held up as historical facts, as truth, as moral imperatives. We could add 2 Timothy 2:14-18 where we read about the believers’ obligation to rightly divide the word of truth and avoid vain doctrinal babblings like the spiritualized teaching of the resurrection taught by Hymenaeus and Philetus.
Every believer has an obligation to handle the word of God with fear and trembling, rightly organizing the piecemeal snippets of truth into categories, framing God-honoring doctrines for each category, and defending these Bible teachings, not just for the doctrines of salvation (soteriology) and the doctrines of the endtimes (eschatology) mentioned above, but for the entire body of teaching in the Bible.
Tragically, many Christians put tension between these two layers. Some despise or marginalize the top layer, disdaining doctrine and insisting that the gospel and right living should be primarily if not exclusively our focus. Others have an eagle-eyed focus on the top layer and are negligent of the bottom layer. If men pass their doctrinal smell test, they give them a pass and don’t worry too much about their life style. They defend this indifference with the plea that it’s not their place to judge. Both of these lopsided emphases are serious mistakes. We need to love God with all of our HEART, soul, MIND, and strength. There ought not to be any tension between heart and mind. Only sin, unbelief, and ignorance can put tension between the heart and mind.
May God help us to hold fast to both the doctrinal layer and the heart-matters layer as essential components of the faith, minimizing neither one. Here we rightly apply the divine principle, “these things you ought to have done not leaving the others undone,” though the application is not to things that are major and minor in reality, but to things which men wrongly place in a major vs minor dichotomy.
Eyes wide open, brain engaged, heart on fire,
Lee Brainard
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