The Weight of Transmission
manifest in the flesh." Any teaching that displaces Christ from the center or diminishes the cross cannot be called good, regardless of how popular or pragmatic it may appear. Its outcome is godliness. In Titus 1:1, Paul speaks of "the truth which is after godliness." Good doctrine feeds the soul and forms the life. It does not merely inform the intellect; it reforms the will. It produces love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith.
The steward, therefore, must be saturated in "good doctrine." Saturation is not achieved by casual contact. A cloth is not saturated by being sprinkled; it is saturated by being immersed. The mind of the teacher must be immersed in the apostolic testimony until his thoughts are shaped by its categories, his affections are stirred by its glory, and his conscience is bound by its commands. This requires time, meditation, and repetition. It requires reading the Scriptures comprehensively, not merely homiletically.
It means that the teacher reads not only to find a text for Sunday but to have his own heart searched on Monday. The steward who is malnourished will, with the best of intentions, malnourish others. He will substitute cleverness for clarity, and stories for substance, because he possesses little else to give.
The Weight of Transmission The stewardship of doctrine carries weight because truth is weighty. In Hebrew, the word for glory is kabod, which literally means weight or
heaviness. Truth from God carries the weight of His glory. To handle it carelessly is to treat the glory of God as a light thing. James issues a sobering warning: "My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation." The word "masters" is didaskaloi, teachers. The reason for the warning is the accountability. Teachers will be judged with a stricter judgment because they traffic in the currency of eternal truth. A misplaced word can mislead a soul. A neglected emphasis can starve a congregation. A distorted doctrine can shipwreck faith.
This weight should not produce paralysis, but it must produce sobriety.
The one who stands to teach is not offering opinions. He is stewarding a deposit. Paul told Timothy, "That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us." The word "committed" is paratheke, a deposit entrusted for safekeeping. In the ancient world, if a man was traveling and needed his valuables secured, he would place them in the hands of a trusted friend. That friend became a steward of the deposit.
He did not own it. He could not alter it. He could not sell it. His task was to guard it and return it intact. So it is with doctrine. The gospel is not ours to