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  Flight Paths

An Uncertain “Sound”

11/22/2013

6 Comments

 
We don’t travel a lot, but when we do we try to find a group of brethren who share our faith.  Most people call this looking for a “sound church.” After several unsettling experiences with so-called “sound churches” on the road, I started studying the phrase. Guess what?  You won’t find it anywhere in the Bible, not in any of the nine translations I checked.

I have already mentioned a time when we forgot our “church clothes” and
had to attend services in jeans and flannel shirts—camp clothes--and the cold
reception we received.  Another time I was in a city far away from home for a scary surgery. We remembered our church clothes, but it didn’t seem to make a bit of difference.  We walked in the front door, went down the middle aisle and sat two-thirds of the way down—Keith must be able to see faces in detail so he can lip-read.  We were at least 10 minutes early.  No one approached us, nor nodded, nor even looked our way.  Finally the woman in front of us heard Keith say, “I can’t believe no one has even greeted us,” and turned around to introduce herself.  After services we walked down the aisle surrounded shoulder to shoulder by the (still unwelcoming) crowd, stopped at a tract rack for a minute or two, and finally walked out the door before the preacher finally came out calling us to say hello.  It wasn't like we didn’t give him plenty of time.  No one else even bothered.

Contrast that to the time we entered a building thinking that we probably
didn’t agree entirely with this group because of a few notices hanging on the
wall, but were greeted effusively by every single member the minute they saw
us.  We were even invited to lunch, while at the previous church I mentioned, living in a hotel between dangerous procedures, no one even asked if we needed any help.

So when our recent study of faith came upon a passage in Titus about
being “sound in the faith,” I decided to check the entire context and see what
that actually meant.  Since I must be brief here, I hope you will get your Bible and work through it with me and see for yourself.

First, the phrase applies to individuals, not a corporate body.  Titus 1:10-16 gives us a detailed and complete picture of someone who is not “sound.” They are the ones the elders in verses 5-9 are supposed to “reprove sharply” so they may be “sound in the faith” v 13.  Look at those seven verses (10-16) and you will see a list that includes these, depending upon your version:  unruly, vain talkers, deceivers, false teachers, men defiled in mind and conscience, unbelievers (who obviously claim otherwise), those who are abominable, disobedient, and deny God by their works, being unfit for good works.  

The context does not end just because the next line says, “Chapter 2.”  In that chapter Paul clearly defines what “sound in the faith” means, beginning unmistakably with “”Speak the things that befit sound doctrine, that the older men…” and going straight into the way people should live.  Read
through it.  Everything he tells the older men and women, the younger men and women, and the servants to do and to be fit somewhere in that previous list (“un-sound”) as an opposite. 

If people who are unruly are un-sound, then people who are temperate,
sober-minded, and reverent in demeanor are sound.  If people who are defiled in mind and conscience are not sound, then people who are chaste, not enslaved to wine (or anything else), and not thieves are sound.  If people who deny God by their works and are even unfit for good works are not sound, then people who are kind, sound in love, and examples of good works are sound. 
Go all the way through that second chapter and you can find a (opposite)
match for everything in the first.

Now let’s point out something important:  if being a false teacher makes you
unsound, then being a teacher of good and having uncorrupt doctrine does indeed make you sound, but why do we act like that is all there is to it? 
You can have a group of people who believe correctly right down the line
but who are unkind, unloving, un-submissive, impatient, and who do nothing but sit on their pews on Sunday morning with no good works to their name and they are still not a “sound church!”  Not according to Paul. Nine out of the ten things on that “un-sound” list have nothing to do with doctrine—they are about the way each individual lives his life.

I am reminded of Jesus’ scalding words to the Pharisees in Matthew  23:23: Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy, and faith: but these you ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone. Yes, our doctrine must be sound, but doesn’t it mean anything to us that Paul spends far more time talking about how we live our lives every day?  
 
If the church is made up of people, then a sound church must be made up
of sound people who live sound lives.  That is the weightier matter of the law of
Christ.
 
For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified: Romans 2:13.

Dene Ward

6 Comments
Netagene link
11/22/2013 12:34:51 am

So true! I have been to several "cold" churches. Even though they taught The Truth, I didn't feel welcome. But in visiting with some friends who are part of a liberal church - well, they have been more friendly.

I rode my motorcycle to a gospel meeting one night (about 25 years ago in metro Tampa). I knew the regular preacher REAL well. He took me aside and said that they didn't like for women to wear slacks or ride motorcycles! (Of course I went there another time, just for mischief, knowing how he felt!) No, I didn't leave.

Years ago, the elders where I worshiped (another congregation) asked me to edit the bulletin, which I did for 7+ years, with permission to also write for it, which I did extensively. I was always complemented. When I left that congregation, not one person called to see why I wasn't at worship, etc. (I didn't announce that I was leaving.)

Where I worship NOW is one of the friendliest, most HUGGING group I have ever known! I know that I am not friendly - I've always been a loner - and I have never been a hugger. I'm still working on it. I'm 69 and God isn't through with me yet!

Reply
rpbell link
11/23/2013 09:25:55 am

So, they didn't like a woman wearing slacks, nor riding a motorcycle; but would they "let" (permit or be tolerant toward) a woman in a frilly dress who is driving a Cadillac, exhibit a spirit of inhospitality or rudeness toward others?

Netagene...way to go, girl!

Reply
Netagene link
11/23/2013 11:10:16 am

To Brother R.P. Bell - not "they", but "he". I don't know how he treated the fancier people! (I DID have a car, but it was an older clunker.) Maybe I wasn't showing a godly spirit by going again on the bike. Actually the first time I was there was a Wednesday night when I'd gone somewhere after work and somehow things didn't work out for me to get home in time for regular worship where I was a member. The other building was close, so I went there: jeans, red helmet, and black bike. So of course when they had a gospel meeting, I put on a nice slacks outfit - and rode the bike - walked in the door with my skid lid, held out my hand to shake, said: "Hi, Brother ...!" and of course called him by his first name! I knew several there (I knew people everywhere). Daddy was a deacon, then an elder - and I was a bit of a maverick!

Dene, forgive me for posting this with your blog!

Evelyn Garrett
11/22/2013 01:38:08 am

Dene, I so agree with you...when one thinks SOUND..they had better go to that love chapter and realize, you can follow all the rules, all the laws..AND HAVE NOT LOVE! The most sound Church of Christs my hubby and I ever found HAD NOT LOVE, and those who were somewhat free in their thinking showered us with care and love when we were at our lowest depths...and needed assistance.

Reply
Joanne
11/23/2013 02:48:41 am

Dene, very true. And a good study of the passage, an individual need to grow. Sooo, perhaps it is up to me to be their teacher and be the first to greet them in a loving way. I have found where there is no example within a congregation to bite the bullet and greet strangers ("strangers"!) they may not even realize what this lack does to the stranger in their midst. When I do speak, again, and then again--well, usually I discover one outgoing person and it is THIS one I give a strong nudge. Whether it helped or not, I did my part.

Reply
linda
12/10/2013 12:12:53 am

I love being a door greeter in a foreign church.People see themselves differently then they would have you think,and excuse there own behavior ,to the tune of everyone know us,or I even heard"to bad they'll get over us or be us"..I like the challenge the older and blinder with love I've become in the Lord.So my boldness is more of my comfort then when I was is my 30's to 40's,in fact most times "they" become the stranger among us,and we are not there to punch the first day time card but look to what blessings the lord will share.Thankyou

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    Dene Ward has taught the Bible for more than  forty years, spoken at women’s retreats and lectureships, and has written both devotional books and class materials. She lives in Lake Butler, Florida, with her husband Keith.


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