Does God’s Truth Need Protecting?

What I heard last Sunday (while attending my own church) was a question concerning God's word - does it need protecting? The minister did not articulate out loud that question-but at some point during his sermon he mentioned in the history of 'our' church movement there were those who felt the need to protect the word (the doctrine) of the church. This in part he said was due to a "suspicious (mis)understanding of the role of the Holy Spirit".

The question is paradoxical in nature – it is like asking ‘Does God need protecting’? If the answer is ‘yes’ then whose job is it to protect it? And if it is ‘no’ does that mean there is no need to be concerned with what is done with the word of God? The biblical text for Sunday’s sermon was Paul’s letters (I and II Timothy and Titus) that contain much about individual behavior and manners fitting of a follower of Christ, including how the word of God is handled.

In the letters to Titus and Timothy, Paul addressed known problems that the young churches in Crete and Ephesus were experiencing. Issues such as: “false doctrine”, “foolish controversies”, “arguments and quarrels”, “godless myths and old wives tales”, “endless genealogies”, false teachers and “godless chatter” along with “opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge", what is  “ungodly” and how such teaching was spreading "like gangrene" (I Timothy 1:4, 4:7, 6:20; II Timothy 2:14,16, 17 & 23;Titus 3:9;). He warned Timothy that “a time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine” (II Timothy 4:3) and in “later times” there will be those who abandon their faith and “follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons” (I Timothy 4:1). This certainly would seem to support the need for some sort of policing of the Word of God.

In the same letter(s) Paul offered Timothy and Titus encouragement and guidance when he wrote that “all scripture is God breathed”.... “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (II Timothy 3:16). Timothy was urged by Paul to be devoted to “public reading” of the scriptures and “preaching and teaching” (I Timothy 4:13) and to “correctly” handle the “word of truth” (II Timothy 2:15) and do so with “great patience and careful instruction” (II Timothy 4:2). Titus was instructed by Paul to “straighten out what was left unfinished” (Titus 1:5), “teach what is in accord with sound doctrine” along with other words of guidance (Titus 2:1-10).

The fact is the infallible Word of God has been left to fallible people without anyone to 'police' it other than the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 55:11 says that God's word will accomplish what He intends it to.  As believers and followers our job is to let God's Word be “a lamp unto our feet” (Psalm 119:105) and be transformed by it (Romans 12:2). Perhaps the most sobering words on this matter were spoken by Jesus; "If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day" (John 12:47 & 48).