Just heard yesterday from an audiobook, "I didn't want him (the new pastor) to go beating them over the head WITH DOCTRINE."
Likewise, on Facebook not too long ago, "I didn't want to destroy him WITH 'SOUND DOCTRINE'."
OK, yes.
I realize it's very possible to overwhelm a person by getting in their face with chapter and verse, and instruct or "school" them in a very cold, impersonal and unloving way. It's often done when we're overly zealous about winning our point and proving something about ourselves instead of having genuine concern for the victim (sorry! I mean beneficiary) of our "instruction."
But that's our own immaturity and insensitivity. We don't have to throw doctrine under the bus for that.
My point is, isn't it true that in the vast majority of cases, when you hear "doctrine" mentioned at all today, IT WILL BE IN A NEGATIVE SENSE?
Who's the one who started that ball rolling, I wonder?
From Chester McCalley again: "In the midst of one of Israel's great feasts, Jesus went up into the Temple, and began to teach (John 7:14)." His hearers were amazed, because Jesus had not been trained in the traditional human institutions (John 7:15). In response, Jesus reminds them, "My DOCTRINE (teaching) is not My own, but His who sent Me." The teaching of the Son of God on earth was from Heaven -- it was, as is true of all Bible doctrine, divine revelation. It was sourced in God, our Heavenly Father.
I think we ought to be careful in our hurry to be on the side of the crowd that denigrates "doctrine," that we are not "dissing" the One who is the Source of all TRUE doctrine (Isaiah 66:2).