Doctrine: The Pastor's Calling

How would you describe a pastor’s job?

Previously, we considered Paul’s exhortations to Timothy to preserve and preach sound doctrine. Paul did not charge Timothy with political advocacy or social change. He didn’t tell him to find ways to give back to the community. He called him to “preach the word” (2 Timothy 4:2).

Paul brought the same focus in his epistle to Titus, a young missionary pastor in Crete. He left Titus in Crete to set the churches there in order (Titus 1:5), and it is no surprise that a key part of that was the teaching of sound doctrine. Paul wrote that there were “many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers . . . who must be silenced” (Titus 1:10–11). Against that, Titus was to stand for the truth, “[speaking] the things which are fitting for sound doctrine” (2:1). Paul charged the young man, “In all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine” (v. 7).

Part of Titus’s mission in Crete was to appoint elders to lead the church. To that end, Paul gave him a list of the necessary qualifications for those men (Titus 1:5–9). In that list, among a host of character qualifications, Paul identifies only one skill that is required. A pastor must “[hold] fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict” (v. 9).

Paul mentions this skill alone because the primary role of the man of God is to guard and teach sound doctrine.

The Teaching and the Duties

Paul told Titus he must hold fast the faithful word in accord with “the teaching,” which refers to the content of that which is taught, which is to say, doctrine. “The teaching” is a reference to the apostolic doctrine that had been passed down, which Titus had already been taught by Paul (cf. 2 Timothy 1:13–14). The apostles’ doctrine had become the basic, recognized dogma of the church. As Luke tells us, believers in the early church “were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching” (Acts 2:42).

This is a call for biblical, theological, God-centered preaching and teaching. We are not innovators; we are not creators; we do not come up with new things. We aren’t here to develop new teaching—we are here to deliver old teaching from the Word of God, handed down from the faithful generations that preceded ours.

On top of that, Paul describes the pastoral duties involved. The first one he mentions in Titus 1:9 is positive: The pastor is to exhort believers in sound doctrine. He is to strengthen God’s people in their knowledge of and obedience to the Word.

The word “sound” in this verse has the basic meaning of being healthy and wholesome, referring to that which protects and preserves life. In his preaching and teaching, it should be the pastor’s sole objective to enlighten his congregation in doctrine that protects and preserves their spiritual health. It is an awesome and demanding task, and for that reason James warns, “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgment” (James 3:1). Speaking to those under the pastor’s care, the writer of Hebrews says, “Obey your leaders, and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account” (Hebrews 13:17). No reasonable, sensible Christian man would presume to take the role of pastor-teacher on himself without the Lord’s calling. Nor would he attempt, when divinely called, to fulfill that calling by preaching and teaching whatever ideas might come to his own mind. He will preach and teach nothing but sound doctrine.

The second duty of the pastor who teaches faithfully is pointed in the opposite direction. Not only is he to exhort believers in sound doctrine, but he is also to refute those—especially those within the church—who contradict healthy, life-protecting, life-preserving doctrine.

Pastors have an obligation to God to give their people an understanding of the truth that will create the discernment necessary to protect them from the ubiquitous error that incessantly assaults them. They are literally to speak against those who depart from sound doctrine. The Lord’s preachers and teachers are commanded to be polemicists against unsound theology that goes under the guise of biblical truth.

Not long after Paul himself ministered in Crete, “many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,” were causing trouble and confusion in the churches there (Titus 1:10). They were not to be ignored, much less tolerated, but were to “be silenced because they [were] upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain” (v. 11). They were particularly dangerous because they arose from within the congregations. “They profess to know God,” Paul said, “but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient, and worthless for any good deed” (Titus 1:16).

Even the spiritually mature church at Ephesus was not immune to false teaching. “I know that after my departure,” Paul warned elders from that church, “savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them” (Acts 20:29–30).

Although false teachers in the church exist under many guises, they all, in one way or another, contradict biblical truth. They are the enemies of sound doctrine, and, therefore, of God and His people. To simply accept Scripture as the inerrant Word of God does not protect against its being misunderstood or even perverted. There are countless heretics who affirm such truths, but they get the Bible’s message wrong. They must be held to the standard of sound doctrine that has been derived from Scripture.

The dual role of the godly preacher is to proclaim and defend God’s Word. In the eyes of the world and, tragically, in the eyes of many genuine but untaught believers, denouncing false doctrine is perceived as unloving, judgmental, and divisive.

But compromising Scripture in order to make it more palatable and acceptable—whether to believers or to unbelievers—is not “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). It is speaking falsehood and is the farthest thing from godly love. It is a subtle, deceptive, and dangerous way to contradict God’s Word. The faithful pastor must have no part in it. He himself tolerates only sound doctrine, and he teaches his people to do the same.

An elder’s spiritual leadership in the church is not built on his natural abilities, his education, his common sense, or his human wisdom. It is built on his knowledge and understanding of sound doctrine—his holding fast the faithful Word and submitting to the truths of that Word applied to life.

That is the pastor’s true job.