Spiritual Seasickness: Don’t Be Tossed To and Fro by Every Wind of Doctrine
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Anyone who has experienced physical seasickness can attest to how awful being in such a state can be.
I thought I would love my father-in-law’s sailboat. I enjoy quiet walks through the woods where I can watch the scenery, and I like sitting by the shore near our home and listening to the waves lapping against the rocks. This seemed to tie in all the pieces of nature I like into one lovely experience. This was not the case.
Every time I’ve set foot on the boat, nausea and stress overwhelm me—nausea, because I get seasick and stress because I’m afraid of both nausea and deep water. While others find the gentle tossing of the water peaceful and relaxing, I find it distressing. I get dizzy. I fix my eyes on the dock in the distance and grip the bars until sparks of pain shoot up my arms. The last time I went on the sailboat with my husband and his family my stomach was swollen with pregnancy (along with my feet), and I laid on the couch under the deck with a cold cloth on my forehead praying for it all to end. Even now as I write this, with my feet planted on the gray floor under my desk, I feel a bit dizzy.
If you get seasick, you know these feelings well. While we may enjoy listening to the water splashing against the boat, the fresh salt air, and even the possibility of seeing sea life, we hate the tossing of the waves.
Following theological trends is the kind of faith Paul warns us to avoid so we don’t experience spiritual sea sickness.
If you haven’t noticed, theology moves in trends like everything else in the world. Like the latest fashion or social media trends, different theological positions and groups come in and out of style. For a few years a certain theological tradition will grow in popularity, and people will flock to the church doors where it is taught. You’ll see blog posts and Instagram posts capturing people as they worship in the latest trendy way. Certain phrases get coined, and everyone starts using them. But suddenly, one day you’ll find that people are warning against that very tradition they once loved and aligned themselves with. It’s now dangerous and foolish to say you belong to a church with those kinds of Christians. It can make us feel dizzy trying to figure out what we’re supposed to believe.
Thus, in Ephesians, Paul warns us against spiritual sea sickness:
He [Jesus] gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Eph. 4:11–16; emphasis added)
Paul wants us to be wary of following theological trends. He calls us to ground ourselves in a solid, local church where we are taught right and true theology. He calls us to cling to Christ and so grow up in theological maturity. This doesn’t mean we never shift our beliefs.
The kind of change in doctrinal beliefs that’s led by God through sanctification is usually slow and not necessarily tied to what’s trendy.
My faith has gone through many subtle shifts and turns as I’ve studied and learned more. But the kind of change in doctrinal beliefs that’s led by God through sanctification is usually slow and not necessarily tied to what’s trendy. It happens through immersing ourselves in God’s Word and him working a change in our hearts to show us his truth in a clearer light than we had before.
Being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine is akin to buying a new wardrobe every time the trends change. There’s nothing wrong with the clothes we have now, but we throw them out because they don’t fit with what the influencers are wearing and fill our closets with the newest trends.
Many of us do the same with our theology. We listen to a new podcast that everyone else is listening to, hear about this new position or doctrine we haven’t heard of before, and then adopt it as our own. We see our favorite Bible teachers on Instagram going to a different church and suddenly we become convinced we need to try that too. Everyone is worshiping this way, so maybe we need to do that as well. We read the next bestselling book in the Christian living section and decide this is how we must form our faith. It’s just another wave by which we’re being tossed to and fro.
Here are a few simple steps you can take today to ground yourself in the essentials of the Christian faith.
Brothers and sisters, may we strive to not be thrown about by every wind of doctrine. Instead, let’s study God’s Word and know it. Put yourself under the right preaching of the Word. Ground yourself in historic Christian doctrine and the true gospel before trying on the next theological trend. Know what God says about himself, salvation, and life rather than what the latest influencer thinks. Know God through his Word, not through viral social media posts.
How do we do this? Here are a few simple steps you can take today to ground yourself in the essentials of the Christian faith before jumping on the next theological trend:
Find a local church that preaches God’s Word and commit to it. Choosing a local church isn’t like finding a hairdresser. You can jump from hairdresser to hairdresser each time you need your haircut, but you shouldn’t find a new church every time yours gets a little boring. Before choosing a church, check out its doctrinal statements, meet with the pastors to ask questions, and attend the church services to learn more about what the church believes and what the leadership is like. Don’t chose a church based on whatever is trendy. Find one that holds to historic Christianity.
Read Scripture more often than social media and popular books. The Bible is the only book without any errors and is breathed from God himself, and it is this book that needs to be our foundation before we can take in and rightly discern other content. It can feel hard to find time to read the Bible, but perhaps if we considered our screen time (whether on our phones, tablets, computers, or TVs) we would find that we have anywhere from at least ten to thirty minutes that could be devoted to Scripture.
Get discipled. Learn under believers who are older, wiser, and more mature than you, and bring your questions and struggles to them.
Each of these steps will help guard you from the shifting sands of the culture and ground yourself in the truth. You’ll learn how to discern right from almost right, as Spurgeon so famously quipped, and your roots will grow ever deeper into the truths of God.
Related Articles:
4 Reasons Why Every Christian Needs a Deeply Historical Faith
Christian Basics: What Are the Five “Alones” and Why Do You Need to Know Them?
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A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World by Paul E. Miller
