Sound Doctrine: The Health of Hugiaino
(Matthew 7:28). The apostles' didachē in Acts 2:42 describes the substance of their instruction to the early church. While didachē and didaskalia overlap significantly, scholars have noted a distinction: didachē can refer simply to content, whereas didaskalia often stresses the activity and authority of teaching, especially as an ongoing, formative process.
Didaskalia emphasizes instruction as a living tradition to be kept and obeyed. It is teaching with binding authority, the curriculum of the covenant community.
Sound Doctrine: The Health of Hugiaino When Scripture qualifies doctrine, it does so most frequently with the adjective "sound." This is the Greek word hugiaino , from which we derive our English word "hygiene." The term is a medical word that means to be healthy, wholesome, well, or free from disease. Its repeated use in the pastoral epistles is not accidental. Paul is presenting doctrine in therapeutic categories. Just as the body requires healthy food and medicine to thrive, so the soul requires healthy teaching.
1 Timothy 1:10 provides a catalog of behaviors that are "contrary to sound doctrine." The list includes lawlessness, disobedience, ungodliness, sinfulness, and a host of specific vices ranging from murder to perjury. The implication is profound: sound doctrine produces sound living. Unsound doctrine, or the absence of doctrine, produces spiritual sickness that