Sound doctrine comes from an accumulation of study of God’s word. This does not mean we are all scholars in the sense of earning a degree. But we read His word continually. We look up verses that are quoted to us to see if they agree with what the speaker is telling us. It means we are not passive listeners, soaking in whatever is presented in church, bible study or conversation. We write down chapter and verse and read for ourselves.
I have been saddened many times when discussing a particular teaching with someone and they are adamant about a view point and say to me, “I don’t know enough scripture to show you, but I know this is true.
How can we base our lives and teaching on someone else's opinion and not on God’s word. Don’t we all have a responsibility to study God’s word and rightly interpret the same
(1 Thessalonians 4:11)? We may not be able to quote chapter and verse, but we must be able to find it. If not, we are not follow God, but man’s opinion of God.
