One of the things most lacking among Christians today is a firm grasp of the doctrinal truths whereupon their faith and salvation should be built. When someone mentions the word doctrine, many things come to mind. Plain and simple isn’t one of them. For some, the word conjures up images of stuffy classrooms where men in ugly tweed sport coats drone on endlessly about theological minutia.
For others, doctrine is frightening because they feel that they are somehow academically inadequate to grasp the complexities of theology. And for others doctrine is well and good, but to them it seems far removed from their everyday experiences where they struggle to live out their faith in practical ways. But nothing could be further from the truth. Doctrine teaches us how to think and how we think always determines how we act. If we do not think right we cannot act right. Doctrine is the foundation whereupon our practice is built. All that said... doctrine doesn’t have to be complicated.
Jesus, the author of our faith, the foundation of all doctrine, didn't cloud his messages with technical or theological jargon. He spoke in simple terms that normal people could understand. We need to remember that Jesus did not use the classical Greek language of the scholar. He spoke in Aramaic, the street language of that day and talked of birds, flowers, lost coins, and other everyday objects that anyone could relate to.
Jesus taught profound truths in simple ways. Today, we do the exact opposite. We teach simple truths in profound ways. Ever wonder why some people are not getting the message?
Sometimes when we think we’re being "deep," we are really just being "muddy” with our words and explanations. We don’t need to show off our knowledge by using Greek words and academic terms to explain something as simple as the gospel. No one cares about the Greek except other highly educated folks who feel compelled to impress others with their knowledge.
It's easy to complicate the gospel, and of course, Satan would like nothing better than for us to do just that. The apostle Paul worried that "your minds would be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ" (2 Cor. 11:3 NASB).
And remember, simple doesn't mean shallow. Simple doesn't mean simplistic. Simple means being clear and understandable. For instance, "This is the day the Lord has made" is simple while, "Have a nice day!" is simplistic.
Most people today communicate with a vocabulary of less than 2,000 words and rely on only about 900 words in daily use. If you want to communicate with most people, you need to keep it simple.
When it comes to communicating life-saving, life-changing truth we should only be interested in getting our message across as clearly and simply as possible. God doesn’t need us trying to impress people with fancy explanations and complex wordy thoughts about the Bible’s teachings. We need to keep our message of these truths... plain and simple.
Jesus – no one else – must be our model. When we communicate the gospel message and God-pleasing truths like he did, we'll see the results like he did. People will get it, embrace it and love it.
