At the Teacher's Feet: The Posture That Preserves
the trustworthy word? Because the time will come when people will not endure sound teaching. Why refuse the teaching of Balaam? Because the Judge stands at the door.
Paul tells Timothy that perilous times will come, marked not only by moral decay but by doctrinal drift. People will have a form of godliness but deny its power. They will be "always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." They will accumulate teachers to suit their passions. The therapy for this age is not softer speech. It is "preach the word." In season and out. With complete patience and teaching. Because when the wind is howling, the anchor must hold.
The doctrine of Christ is not a luxury for peaceful times. It is a lifeline for perilous ones. Deception will intensify as the end approaches. The lawless one will come "with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved." To love the truth is not to have affection for an idea. It is to be bound to a Person. Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life." To love truth is to love Him. To hold doctrine is to hold Him.
Therefore the church's eschatology must produce doxology and orthodoxy.
We do not speculate to entertain. We study to prepare. The bride makes herself ready. And readiness, in Revelation, looks like repenting of Jezebel's teaching, overthrowing Balaam's stumbling blocks, and keeping the words of Christ. The end of the age will not be averted by a new doctrine. It will be endured by an old one, faithfully believed and fiercely obeyed.
At the Teacher's Feet: The Posture That Preserves Mary of Bethany found the one thing necessary. While Martha was distracted with many things, Mary sat at the Lord's feet and listened to His teaching. Jesus did not rebuke Martha for serving. He rebuked the anxiety that had displaced attention. There is a way to be busy for Christ that forgets to be with Christ. And when we stop sitting, we start straying.
The call at the end of the canon is the same as the call at the beginning of discipleship: come to Me. Learn from Me. Take My yoke. His yoke is not only rest. It is instruction. A yoke was the wooden frame that bound two