Going to the doctor for a checkup is something a lot of people do religiously. They want to make sure their health is not failing in ways they can’t detect on their own. Not a bad idea.
Likewise we are prone to miss some signs of poor spiritual health if we don’t check up on it regularly.
In Paul’s letters to the pastors Timothy and Titus he uses a word that helps evaluate spiritual health. The word is "sound". We get our English word "hygiene" from the Greek word Paul uses.
When the Bible speaks of "sound doctrine", "sound faith" and "sound speech", it is therefore talking about "healthy doctrine", "healthy faith" and "healthy speech".
How do we maintain good spiritual hygiene? How do we know we are spiritually well?
This is a very important question on several different planes. One of current importance is, "how do I know if I’m truly spiritual since there are so many different claims of spirituality in today’s society?"
The Word of God tells us:
"My dear friends, don’t believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world." (1 John 4:1 - The Message)
The first test of good spiritual health is our relationship to "sound doctrine". This is the foundation. If our spiritual health is going to be good it has to be based on the right information.
Consider what the Bible says about "sound" or "healthy" doctrine:
Titus 2:1 - "You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine."
2 Timothy 1:13 - "What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus."
In Titus 1:9, while giving the character qualities of a pastor, the Bible says, among other things...
"He 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."
Sound doctrine then, has an encouraging and uplifting effect. One of the reasons we find reading, studying and hearing teaching and preaching from the Word of God so beneficial is that it is very encouraging! Sound doctrine is healthy and encourages us because it is true and trustworthy!
About halfway through a PBS program on the Library of Congress, Dr. Daniel Boorstin, the Librarian of Congress, brought out a little blue box from a small closet that held the library’s rarities.
The label on the box read, "Contents of the president’s pockets on the night of April 14, 1865." Since that was the fateful night Abraham Lincoln was assasinated, every viewer’s attention was seized. Boorstin then proceeded to remove the items in the small container and display them on camera. There were five things in the box:
A handkerchief, embroidered "A. Lincoln."
A country boy’s pen knife.
A spectacles case repaired with string.
A purse containing a $5 bill - confederate money!
Some old and worn newspaper clippings.
"The clippings", said Boorstin, "were concerned with the great deeds of Abraham Lincoln." One of them actually reports a speech by John Bright which says that Lincoln is "one of the greatest men of all times". Today that’s common knowledge. The world now knows that British statesman John Bright was right in his assessment of Lincoln, but in 1865 millions shared quite a contrary opinion. The President’s critics were fierce and many. His was a lonely agony that reflected the suffering and turmoil of the country ripped to shreds by a costly war.
(Story from "The Quest for Character" - pp. 62-63, by Chuck Swindoll)
Can’t you just imagine President Lincoln pulling that newspaper clipping out of his pocket every once in a while just to read something encouraging in the midst of all the discouragement all around him?
One of the most encouraging things we can do is pick up and read a message that is more than just the opinion of man. We have the privilege of being encouraged by the Word of God!
Sometimes our spiritual health grows weak because we are pulled down by all the discouraging things around us. Our hope is in a constant diet of sound doctrine.
False doctrine on the other hand leads to a spiritually unhealthy lifestyle.
1 Timothy 1:8-10 - "We know that the law is good if ones uses it properly."
"We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers, and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers,"
"For adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers - and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine..."
Why are some lives spiritually unhealthy? The doctrine they have been listening to and following is not sound. We cannot maintain good spiritual health if we are following false teaching.
The Word of God issues some of its sharpest warnings in this area.
2 Timothy 4:3 - "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."
We can digest false teaching because it’s what we want to hear at the moment, but like eating junk food, we will eventually pay the price. Our spiritual health will inevitably suffer. We will find ourselves more easily discouraged, more easily prone to sin, more easily led astray by even more serious false teaching.
The second diagnostic test for spiritual health follows logically. The Bible talks about "sound faith".
Titus 1:10-13 - "For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group."
"They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach - and that for the sake of dishonest gain."
"Even one of their own prophets has said, ’Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.’"
"This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith."
Do you see the connection? If we listen to and follow doctrine that is not sound, naturally, our faith won’t be sound. Only sound doctrine produces sound faith. Sound spiritual health is predicated on sound spiritual intake.
Remember the big NASA fiasco back in the late 90’s when they lost the $125 million Mars orbiter? One engineering team used metric units while the other used English units for a key spacecraft operation. For that reason, information failed to transfer between the Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft team at Lockheed Martin in Colorado and the mission navigation team in California.
The navigation mishap pushed the spacecraft too close to the planet’s atmosphere where it burned and broke into pieces, killing the mission on a day when engineers had expected to celebrate the craft’s entry in Mars’ orbit.
There’s been a meeting of the minds since then and they’ve all decided to use the same measurements from here on out.
That’s what we’ve got to do to maintain good spiritual health. We’ve got to get on the same page as God. We’ve got to use His measurement system, and His measurement system is sound doctrine which alone produces sound faith.
Look at some of the examples of a life of sound faith that the Bible mentions.
We’ve already read Titus 2:1 once, but let’s read it again and put it together with some specifics.
Titus 2:1 - "You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine."
Verse 2 - "Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance."
3 - "Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good."
4 - "Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children,"
5 - "to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God."
6 - "Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled."
These verses clue us in to the fact that our spiritual health is based on sound doctrine - which is evidenced by sound faith - which determines how we live.
"How can I tell if my spiritual health is good?"
How good am I living?
Thirdly, the state of our spiritual health can be diagnosed by the soundness of our speech. Let’s go just a little further with Titus chapter 2. Verse 6 again - "Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled."
Verse 7 - "In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In showing your integrity, seriousness"
Verse 8 - "and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us."
As a young man himself, part of what pastor Titus was to teach the other young men in his congregation was to be modeled by his own life. Yes, as a pastor, he was to be sound in speech, but this was also part of what was to be taught to the members of the congregation as well.
"How can I tell if my spiritual health is good?"
Well, how are you talking? How’s your speech? Is it sound?
Is your speech uplifting and positive?
Ephesians 4:29 - "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."
Negative talk is bad for your spiritual health and denotes spiritual health that isn’t so good.
Gossip, backbiting, mean words, harsh words, unwholesome words, negative words - they don’t build anyone up so we shouldn’t use them. They’re an indicator of poor spiritual health.
No wonder God’s Word admonishes us, "My dear brother, take note of this, Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry." (James 1:29)
So how do I know if my spiritual health is good?
Sound doctrine - do I listen to it and follow it?
Sound faith - is my life producing the right kind of works?
Sound speech - am I talking right?
What if the Holy Spirit convinces me I have room for improvement in any one of these areas?
Revelation 2:5 - "Repent and do the things you did at first."
