Most don’t know that God considers the instruction in the doctrine of Christ a necessary step to gain multiple skills to function in His kingdom. A premium is put on the study of the word of God, without making the connection to receiving instruction. Apostle Paul makes these connections for us in his epistle.

2 Timothy 2:15
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

A workman is a skilled laborer in God’s kingdom. And when you think about God’s purpose for your life and what that means, this is what He wants for everyone who has made a commitment to accept the covenant of Jesus Christ.

God lays a path for a strong and living relationship with Him that includes our participation and that path starts with instruction in the doctrine of Christ, which we then daily study. The teaching of the covenant lays out the connections between Jesus’ spiritual tools and the work of God in our hearts. A person that connects his faith to all the things in Christ that God approves of is constantly sustained by His power and increasing in His virtue.

God wants to actively engage us in fellowship, but will only do so on His terms. Submission to God is about accepting His way over our own and answering His call to apply ourselves to the knowledge He has given as a gift for us to approach unto Him.

The doctrine of Christ is called “holy” knowledge because God separated this knowledge for us to apply ourselves to Jesus’ covenant. As we daily study the doctrine of Christ, we’re preparing our hearts to receive God’s gifts. Each gift is attended by the anointing to ensure that we return to God in the pure conscience and this is why Apostle Paul says that there is no shame in those things we touch, taste, and handle of Christ, for God’s power is manifested in them.

As I said earlier, there are many skills we daily draw upon that are necessary for us to co-labor with God as He ministers to us in the healing of our souls and forming of His fruits within. We’re not studying fruit; we’re studying God’s process for fruit bearing as we take part in that living process. We study the knowledge upon which God has given His stamp of approval because it reflects Jesus and His work in us. The true study of the doctrine of Christ (the truth of His covenant) is how we engage God.

In our IDCCST Course class it often comes up how we greatly value the daily study of the doctrine of Christ. The soul needs to be fed the right knowledge for the Spirit to work with – which we in turn benefit from as the anointing brings discernment whereby to overcome the challenges that present in self, the world and the influence of the devil.

To study the doctrine of Christ we gain spiritual gifts for our labor and increase in God’s house and we are greatly strengthened. But we are exhorted through king Solomon against vain study (hoarding the knowledge of the world).

Ecclesiastes 12:12
And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

This warning has to do with the promise which the knowledge of the world holds for man’s aspirations, hence the popular quote “knowledge is power.” Much study being weariness to the flesh speaks of how that promise is as a carrot before the nose, driving man forward continually in search of completion, only to never gain substance in the soul (as with the donkey never reaching the carrot on a stick).

We see this even with believers accumulating many books by Christian authors, directing their drive for knowledge in a religious pursuit, yet still never truly knowing God. Even though the topic seems right, the knowledge is not. The sanctification which God places on His elect stewardship to give instruction in doctrine is missing, and so a believer cannot know what is approved of God and his soul cannot gain the substance that only God can create within.

This crucial mistake was something Jesus also pointed out to rebuke the religious scholars of His time who took great pride in their study of the scriptures, yet their study took them in another direction. They said they knew the plan of God, but worked contrary to God’s plan.

Jesus as God’s Son bore the measure of grace to unfold the scriptures in the power and verity of the anointing – something that independent study could not do. For that reason we see Jesus continually teaching during His earthly ministry, and preparing His apostles to do likewise as the stewards of His doctrine after His ascension.

Because the anointing rests upon the knowledge of Christ as a sanctified spiritual tool for worship in Jesus’ covenant, discernment is granted by this labor, and the Lord is truly known through divine fruit bearing within the soul.

1 Thessalonians 4:9-12
⁹ But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.

¹⁰ And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more;

¹¹ And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;

¹² That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.

Meeting God’s commandment of love towards our neighbor is also directly linked to our labor with His truth. When we rejoice in connections of faith made during cycles of growth, what preceded was study – we show ourselves approved of God by having engaged with His knowledge to have somewhat to reflect upon in the time of testing – rightly dividing (discerning) His holy knowledge as truth in the face of Satan’s competing suggestions. This understanding gained is not hoarded for our own benefit alone, but shared to build up one another in the faith through the stewarding of charity (the love of God in the form of Godly understanding).

This is what Apostle Paul speaks of in terms of God teaching the covenant believers under his apostolic oversight touching brotherly love. Where charity abounds a healthy church is made manifest. As the first apostles instructed the early church in this part of the function of our daily priesthood, so also today as God has restored living apostles to the church, teaching the responsibility of each doing our own labor for spiritual increase, to quiet the voice of the aspiration that is inclined to compete with the neighbor, and instead, love one another by stewarding the gains of our own study in charity.

Proverbs 15:28
The heart of the righteous studieth to answer: but the mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things.

We not only share the fruit of our spiritual labor with one another, but by joining reason of faith to His knowledge, our perception is aligned with the mind of God, purging the conscience to give “… the answer of a good conscience toward God…”(1 Peter 3:21). In contrast, the wicked are those who remain void of God’s wisdom, knowing only to give expression to their own aspirations, principles and imaginations, which (being faithless) is evil in that the conscience is darkened to reflect only the shadows of sin.

Our choice to study the doctrine of Christ fills the soul with food for righteous thought – to purposefully reflect, rehearse and reciprocate what the Lord has provided in His grace and truth for our strength as the enemy comes to sow His suggestions by which to weary the heart and distress the mind. This labor to align our perspective with God’s is our consent for the fruit He desires to form within us.

During a recent trip with other apostles, evangelists, pastors and teachers to gather saints together in fellowship, the Lord ministered a word of knowledge to me “reflecting” as a teaching point in the study of the doctrine of Christ.

What bearing does reflection have upon study? Reflection goes to our labor with the anointing as we daily prepare ourselves to walk in the ways of this new covenant. So, let’s have a closer look at it. To reflect means to “think deeply or carefully about”. (oxfordlanguages.com)

Synonyms for the word reflect: “To think about, contemplate, consider, review, reflect on, mull over, meditate on, dwell on, chew over, turn over in one’s mind.”

Each of these words mean that we carefully consider the connections the Lord builds for our understanding. We have to study the knowledge of Christ in order to see Him; and this is the application that all of God’s saints embrace. We see this same application in king David in Psalm 119, so let’s look at that.

Psalms 119:97-100
⁹⁷ O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.

⁹⁸ Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me.

⁹⁹ I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.

¹⁰⁰ I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.

David, the writer of this psalm, as a man of faith meditated on God’s word throughout the day to keep his mind occupied in considering the things of God in that first covenant. Mulling over the knowledge of God made him wiser than his enemies, including king Saul who persecuted him unjustly.

And as we follow this great tradition of faith in meditating on the law of grace and truth (contemplating the apostles’ doctrine), we likewise are made wiser than our enemies – wiser than the powers of darkness. As we read earlier in 2 Timothy 2:15, we study the doctrine of Christ to rightly divide the word of truth, and this includes dividing the kingdom of the flesh from the kingdom of God and rightly dividing the powers of darkness from the powers of God.

Ephesians 6:12-13
¹² For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

¹³ Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

We are made wiser than these ancient powers and principalities, for the armor we take on by way of the spiritual labor God sanctified for faith, is of the same power by which Jesus has already overcome sin and death.

As a soldier is best prepared if he enters the battle in full combative gear, having been well trained and armed, so we too need the training of ongoing doctrinal study; the arming of intentional chewing on what we read in the lessons (or hear in the assembly); thinking on, turning over in the mind, meditating all the day, so that our ear would remain circumcised to hear the voice of the Lord directing us in His wisdom through the fiery trials of faith.

Ephesians 6:16
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

The fiery darts of Satan speaks of the suggestions sown to the mind, disguised our own intrusive thoughts, which can be likened to a cruel person flicking lit cigarettes at a small child or animal, to maliciously distress and damage. God authorizes the testing of our faith not for our harm but as opportunity to exercise faithful reflection for overcoming by resourcing Christ in His holy knowledge as our true scale. This teaches the covenant Christian confidence in the anointing as we experience that our capability in faith is not limited to the level of the perceived struggle experienced when the challenge to faith presents.

We are justified in Christ to remain in the place of our strength (active works of faith) irrespective of how we feel, what we think or experience. God does not alter His nature (being a rewarder of faith) according to our present state of being – we can and should trust the process and know that there will be grace and peace to aid such faithful choosing.

I often reflect on this quote from an audio teaching by Apostle Eric vonAnderseck in considering Jesus’ question to Peter (John 21:15-17), which is paralleled in our spiritual cycles of growth:

God says: will you labor with My word, will you labor with My testimony, will you accept the testimony of My Son; regardless of what you feel, regardless of what you think, regardless of the experience; will you love Me more than these?

Satan’s suggestions aim to detract from our true worth in Christ in order to distract us from our true work in Christ. Reason of faith keeps bright the light of discernment for fruitful continuance amidst the challenges of the day. The righteous in Christ are not weak, for His strength is made perfect in us as every choice of faith is rewarded with more of His empowering grace.

Satan can flick as many fiery darts of detraction or distraction at us as he wants, that is not our concern; for when faith valiantly labors to meet with the Lord through His spiritual tools, and walk out our love for Him in due service, soon enough the force field of the anointing leaves us oblivious of death’s sting. This is the same pattern of faith taught by the first apostles, and restored to the church today for believers to walk in the same liberty from the law of condemnation, and rejoice instead in Christ’s present propitiation.

1 Corinthians 15:55-58
⁵⁵ O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

Faith is called to labor – not with the works of man’s good intentions, but with the knowledge and spiritual tools Jesus sanctified with His blood. If man is willing to study the subjects of this world that interest him, though all are but temporal, how much greater then the choice to study the knowledge of God that hones in us a skill set of divine wisdom, knowledge and understanding; preparing us for our true and eternal destiny in Him?