Good Preaching Annoys Bad Sinners

I am working my way through the Pastoral Epistles one post at a time. The next section is 1 Timothy 1:8-11, which says that the law is to be used correctly. People who don’t have sound doctrine will always say weird things about the law.

Legalists add to it and constantly bash people into the ground over scruples, most of which can be seen. There’s always an external something you’re supposed to do to conform, and if you don’t show that external thing they pounce on you.

Some go the other way and stretch grace and love so far that it leads to lasciviousness. They find ways to eliminate all law, and often endeavor to explain how we can do all the things the law says we can’t and that God is cool with this.

Both are wrong.

Paul said the law is not made for a righteous person, but for a long list of sinner types. Read the list sometime. It’s in 1 Timothy 1:9-10. He lists 14 sinful types of people and then adds “and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine.”

I imagine that includes a lot of stuff.

I’ve often heard people whine that doctrine is impractical and irrelevant; it just gets in the way of unity. It’s just arguing about theories of the atonement or theories of the trinity and other issues that have nothing to do with, like, real life, man.

This is incredibly stupid.

The reason people don’t like doctrine is because sound doctrine always leads to sound behavior. When you’re taught right; you act right. People enjoy their sin, that’s why there’s so much bad doctrine in the church today.

Sound doctrine, according to 1 Timothy 1:11, is in accordance with the Gospel.

There are many warped gospels in the church: Easy Believism, the Health and Wealth Gospel, Universalism, Fatalistic Calvinism, etc. All of these exist because people don’t have right doctrine because they would rather sin and get away with it.

One of the main jobs of a pastor is the preaching of the Word. This preaching should be according to sound doctrine, which will put you at odds with sinners and the sins they enjoy.

Many pastors cave here. They feel the desire to preserve or manufacture unity trumps the teaching of sound doctrine. Some cave because they know their church can’t afford to lose more donors. Some don’t mention right doctrine and wrong sins because they themselves are in bondage to sins.

There are many reasons for preaching bad doctrine and none of those reasons are good.

There is one reason to preach sound doctrine and that’s because God says to do it! I suggest you go ahead and do that regardless of how many people it bothers or how much humility or repentance it might require in you.

People like to sin. If you preach against sin, people will not like you. Tough. Deal with it. It’s the job. If you’re not willing to do that, then get a different job.

Make sure you’re doing it in love though! Some pastors turn into massive jerks here. Speak the truth in love. The desired outcome is the salvation of souls and the edification of believers, not an uber-powerful pastor who slams everyone around.

If you’re not willing to preach the truth in love, then get a different job.

Sound doctrine is what people need. In order to help them get it, the pastor has to have it. Sound doctrine is always shown by righteous living, which is why the qualifications for church leadership are all based on righteous living.

This is a big deal. Get this right.

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