Is doctrine really important?

I've been pondering lately....

Is doctrine really important? I don't mean doctrines of great importance like those of salvation and the fact that we are saved by grace, but some of the things that we might consider "smaller" like Calvinism vs. Arminianism, or like once you get saved, are you always saved?

Should I really worry about these things? Doesn't thinking about these things too much just lead to division and dischord in the church?

I've swung back and forth on the pendulum, and rested in God's word.

(1 Timothy 4:16 NIV) Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

(2 Timothy 4:2-4 (NIV) [2] Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. [3] For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. [4] They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

(Titus 1:9 NIV) He [an elder or overseer] must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.

(Titus 2:1 NIV) You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine.

Doctrine is important, and we need to be careful what we believe, and what others around us teach and believe. And if they have doctrine that doesn't line up with the bible, we need to "correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction." This means lovingly, not argue and fight over them, but to patiently explain the way of god more accurately, as Priscilla and Aquilla did with Apollos (Acts 18:26). You see, when Priscilla and Aquilla corrected Apollos' doctrine and revealed to him Jesus Christ, he became what God intended for him to be, and we know, by later references, that he was used mightily by God in the early church.

So,

Watch YOUR doctrine
Examine others' doctrine carefully
Correct false doctrine lovingly and patiently
Search the scriptures daily to make sure what you believe and what others teach are true (Acts 17:11)

Much love and grace,

nate