The Apostles’ Doctrine

by Chris Simmons

As discussed in the previous article, the apostles indeed carried the gospel “to all the world” (Mark 16:15-16), proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ everywhere they went. The gospel they preached would save the souls of those who would receive it, believe it, obey it and hold fast to it (I Corinthians 15:1-2).They did not preach their own ideas or interpretations but Paul explains that their message came from God. Paul wrote in Galatians 1:11-12, “For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” This is in accordance with what Jesus spoke about when He told the apostles “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said, that He takes of Mine, and will disclose it to you.” Therefore, when the early Christians were “continually devoting themselves to the apostles teaching” (Acts 2:42), they were really continuing in the “doctrine of Christ” for it was He who promised that “all the truth” would be disclosed to them.

However, none of us alive today were there to hear the sermons that the apostles preached, but we are blessed in that what was revealed to the apostles by inspiration was also written down by them. Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:2-5, “if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. And by referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit.” God’s plan to save man, kept a mystery for countless generations, was now revealed to “His holy apostles.” What God revealed to Paul, he wrote down which we are then responsible for reading.

Paul goes on to point out that if we make the diligent effort to read and study (II Timothy 3:15) what he wrote, we can understand what God revealed to him about becoming “fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise” (Ephesians 3:6). Man does not need a direct operation of the Holy Spirit upon his heart to know God’s will. He simply needs a love for the truth and the willingness to read and study what the apostles wrote from the revelation given to them. It’s imperative for us then to use our time wisely in the study of God’s word because we have been charged with the responsibility to “understand what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:16-17).

The letters written by the apostles therefore carry the authority of God. Paul wrote in I Corinthians 14:37, “If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord’s commandment.” As Peter closed his second letter, he noted the following about the letters written by the apostle Paul, “just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction” (II Peter 3:15-16). This passage teaches us that Paul’s letters were considered to be part of the “scriptures” and if we do anything to “distort” Paul’s letters, it will result in the “destruction” of men’s souls. Not only are we exhorted to “stand firm in” and “hold to” what Paul both spoke and wrote in his letters, but our ability to “gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” is dependent on doing so (II Thessalonians 2:14-15). Our faith, reverence and obedience to those things that Paul preached, wrote and lived will determine whether or not we are in fellowship with God.

How foolish, ignorant and spiritually damning it is to propagate the false doctrine that only the words of Jesus Himself impact our fellowship with God and man!