Actions are Driven by Beliefs
1 Timothy 6:3-5 If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. ESV
I don’t know about you, but I am a master of self-delusion. So many times in my life I’ve believed something to be true, but then lived my life in completely the opposite way to that truth. It’s never ended well.
There’s a fascinating relationship between what we believe and what we do. In the old Latin, what we believe is called doxis and what we do, praxis. Or in English – doctrine and practice. Now, doctrine’s not one of my favourite words, but you get the point. It’s about what we believe.
According to Martyn Lloyd Jones, here’s how many a Christian has wandered away from their faith: Once you go astray in your doctrine, you will very soon be going astray in your behaviour; you can’t divorce doctrine from behaviour.
I absolutely agree. When we’re lazy about what we believe, our behaviour goes down the drain. Here’s the Apostle Paul on that very subject:
1 Timothy 6:3-5 If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. (ESV)
That’s quite a list of bad behaviour there, arising out of wrong doctrine, wrong belief. If you’re a Christ-follower, listen up … God’s gone to a lot of trouble to have the Bible written and preserved down through the ages. It is what we believe. Know it, and don’t stray from it.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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