In order to properly conduct ourselves in the house of God, the church, we also need to take care of the healthy teaching. Second Timothy 4:3-4 says, “The time will come when they will not tolerate the healthy teaching; but according to their own lusts they will heap up to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and they will turn away their ear from the truth and will be turned aside to myths.” The word tolerate is used to indicate enduring some kind of suffering. To some the healthy teaching becomes something that must be tolerated. In a recent training, while listening to my messages, some trainees wrote that they were bored. Listening to the healthy teaching is a suffering to these trainees. Such ones may prefer to hear teachings that will tickle their itching ears. We need to conduct ourselves in the church not according to our itching ears but according to the healthy teaching.
Some may say that it is overly legalistic to refrain from going to movie theaters or other places of worldly entertainment. Our ears may itch to hear such speaking, but we should be governed by the principle of taking care of the healthy teaching. Whether a teaching is boring or tickling does not mean anything; we need to consider only whether or not it is a healthy teaching. It may be a pleasant teaching that tickles our ears but it is not healthy. It is altogether unhealthy to teach that the saints should watch movies. The teaching in the churches must be healthy. Heeding only healthy teaching is another governing principle for our conduct in the church life.
Paul used the terms healthy teaching, healthy words, and healthy speech seven times in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus (1 Tim. 1:10; 6:3; 2 Tim. 1:13; 4:3; Titus 1:9; 2:1, 8). He knew that when the church life is in degradation, people will be bored of the healthy teaching and will prefer to have their ears tickled. Therefore, the Epistles to Timothy and Titus reveal that caring for the healthy teaching is a principle that should govern our conduct in the church life. We need to conduct ourselves not according to our opinion or our likes or dislikes but according to the healthy teaching. We should receive and apply any teaching that is spiritually healthy, and we need to reject any teaching that is not healthy. The proper teaching is not a matter of our taste but a matter of what is healthy.
In the Epistles to Timothy Paul stressed the matter of truth. He wrote, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, an unashamed workman, cutting straight the word of the truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). He mentioned the full knowledge of the truth four times (1 Tim. 2:4; 4:3; 2 Tim. 2:25; 3:7). We need to see the difference between doctrines and truth. Matters regarding the Lord’s table such as whether to serve grape juice or wine, what kind of bread to serve, and whether to pass one large cup or many small cups are all doctrines. However, within the Lord’s table is the truth. The truth of the Lord’s table includes the Head, the Body, and Christ’s death and resurrection. The way to conduct ourselves in the church life is not mainly to take care of doctrines but to take care of the truth. We should not come to the Lord’s table merely to have another meeting or to keep certain forms; rather, we need to know and appreciate the truth of the Lord’s table. If we do not enter into the truth of the Lord’s table, the Lord’s table will become something formal to us. If the Lord’s table becomes something formal to the saints, some may want to drop it because our principle is not to keep any empty forms. This is a problem.
The way to conduct ourselves in the house of God, especially for the leading ones, is to take care of the truth, not merely to care for doctrines. Therefore, all the saints need to know the truth of the Lord’s table. I am concerned that many saints do not know this truth. They may come only to participate in something formal, concerning which they do not know the truth. We all need to realize where our lack is. Concerning baptism, we need to know the truth, not merely the doctrines. Whether to baptize by immersion or by sprinkling is a matter of doctrine. We need to know and live the reality of baptism. Every day we also need to live the reality, the truth, of the Lord’s table. The truth of the Lord’s table should be our life and our daily living, and we should come together on the first day of every week to partake of the Lord’s table as a testimony to the universe of our daily living. We should live daily as the Body for the Head in His death and resurrection.
In John 8:32 the Lord Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” Loose teachings do not liberate us; they only lead us into a loose life. It is the truth that sets us free. In 17:17 the Lord went on to say that the truth sanctifies us. We need to know the truth. In this time of degradation we in the Lord’s recovery must know and live out the truth. This is another principle that should govern our conduct in the church. We need to make the truth our daily living and our daily standard of measurement.