Rule 5 - Be careful about building doctrine on narrative passage

The New Testament can be categorised generally as follows:

Narrative - The Gospels and Acts
Theological - The letters
Prophetic - Revelation and parts of Matthew

The narrative passages within the Bible are basically accounts of events or stories. We have to be careful that we don't build doctrine on what we read. Take Jesus for example:

He walked everywhere
When he did take transport, it was a donkey
He wore sandals
He had a beard

Jesus is the one that we aspire to, but its clear that the above are not examples that we have to emulate in our own lives. It would be wrong to build doctrines on those issues. Jesus had a beard therefore if you want to be like him and be obedient to the teaching of scripture, you must also grow a beard, would quite clearly be a misinterpretation of the Bible.

However, many Christians do exactly that, and in effect build doctrine from narratives. It tell us in Mark 1: 35 that 'Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.' It is declared, and even preached, that we should be like Jesus and start the day off with prayer. However, this is just a narrative passage that tells us that Jesus did it this way. Whilst it may be a good idea to begin the day with a time of prayer, it is not a doctrine.

Most people who build doctrines on narratives are not consistent though. Jesus remained single, but they themselves are happy to get married! We have to be very careful, in Bible interpretation, that we don't pick and choose that which suits us.

But when the narrative passages carry a command, then we do have to interpret the words in a different light. When Jesus said, in Matthew 28 'Go and make disciples of all nations', that statement carried authority, which is applicable to us.

When Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) again that is quite clearly authoritative. We can build doctrines on the content of his words.