“But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.“
2 Corinthians 11:3
As spring has sprung, many people find themselves tending their gardens. Whether they be vegetable or flower gardens, gardens need tending. They need constant water, weeding and protection from intrusive varmints and insects. A good gardener will ensure that protection through passive and active means. They will set up mesh to protect crops from being eaten and spray safe insecticides to fend off the harder-to-see intruders from destroying a crop. A good gardener knows the need to set up protections for the sustenance of those he cares for; this natural reality holds true for church leaders who are charged with offering spiritual sustenance to their flock. The garden of God’s sustaining Word and doctrine must be protected. We can see this all the way back in the Garden of Eden.
The Serpent in the Garden
Right at the beginning of human history, God gave humanity, through Adam and Eve, a job to do. They were made in the image of God, which entailed representing his presence and care on earth. They were to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28). They were also free to “eat every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit” (Genesis 1:29). However, there was one exception. God gave them a command: “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16–17).
Adam and Eve were to work, care for, subdue, populate and expand the Garden of Eden as God’s image-bearing representatives. This care for God’s creation would include protection. Thus comes the serpent into the story. The serpent slithers into the garden and begins asking questions. Questions are not wrong. Questions can be good. Questions either lead to knowledge and wisdom or they lead to suspicion. The serpent was not asking questions to bring about knowledge or wisdom; the serpent came to posit questions to sow suspicion, ultimately of God.
Eve and Adam ultimately took the bait of the serpent. Instead of protecting the garden and casting the serpent out, they entertained his questions and let false doctrine, via manipulative questions, infect the garden and the human mind. The serpent asked if God really said they should not eat of the tree (Genesis 3:1). The truth is that God said they could eat of any tree, except one. Then Eve responds, saying they may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden. However, when she comes to restate the command of God, she allows false doctrine. She claims that God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die” (Genesis 3:3). Her statement is close to what God said, but with some important falsehoods.
False doctrine isn’t always clearly false. Much of the time, it is couched in truth to disguise itself. First, Eve claims God told them not to touch the tree in the midst of the garden. That is not what God said; she is adding to the words of God. Second, she diminishes God’s Word when she claims God said, “lest you die.” God didn’t just say “lest you die,” but rather “you shall surely die.” False doctrine will often diminish the importance of God, his character and nature, and his Word. From here, Satan sinks his fangs into an outright lie and defies God, claiming they will not surely die, but rather that God just doesn’t want them to be like him and is holding out on them (Genesis 3:4–5). Eve and Adam listen to the false claims of the serpent and eat the forbidden fruit.
Truth and Doctrine
The mirror of this story is Jesus’ interaction with Satan in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1–11; Luke 4:1–13). When Satan tries to manipulate and sow suspicion with questions and God’s Word, Jesus responds with the clear and unchanged Words of God. Satan leaves Jesus because Jesus responded with the truth of God’s Word. Had Adam and Eve understood and proclaimed the true words and doctrine of God, Satan would have fled, but instead false doctrine was allowed to impact their mind and actions.
Sound doctrine is so incredibly important for church leaders to know and defend. False doctrine infects and spreads. This is why Paul charges Titus to “teach what is in accord with sound doctrine” (Titus 2:1). Sound doctrine is not postmodern and subjective based on a person’s experience, preference, and/or ability to proof-text. Sound doctrine is rooted in Scripture as God’s people labor together with the help of the Holy Spirit to understand and formally articulate it. To not have a standard of sound doctrine and orthodoxy is to allow destructive forces into the garden of the church.
Guarding the Church
Boundaries, standards and measures are important. If we don’t have them, then we let the hiss of the serpent tickle our ears. False teachers and doctrines come into churches and institutions with the forked tongue of the serpent. It is the work of church leaders and ministerial committees to be sure that pastors are trained in and believe sound doctrine. This is in hopes of protecting flocks by not allowing the serpent to spread his fork-tongued lies. Eve let in a little distortion of God’s Word, and it casts human history into further sin and destruction. May we instead work to cast out false doctrines by being clear, together, on what the Scriptures teach.
