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Doctrines of Men? Or the Word of God?





Written by Justin Reed | Brushwood Press


You’ve probably heard someone say it before. “That’s just the doctrines of men.” Or maybe: “I don’t need commentaries or church history. I’ve got the Bible and the Holy Spirit.” And when you’re trying to faithfully teach the Word—especially doctrines like the ones we call the doctrines of grace—those statements can feel like a brick wall.


It’s not that people are trying to be dismissive, at least not always. But sometimes what sounds like spiritual humility is actually a kind of resistance. Not resistance to you. But to the authority of Scripture itself. And when that happens, you feel like you’re not even having the same conversation anymore. One person is bowing before the Word, and the other is measuring it against their experience.


So let’s walk through this slowly. Let’s talk about what “doctrines of men” actually means—and what it doesn’t.


That phrase comes straight from Jesus. In Matthew 15, He’s rebuking the Pharisees for elevating their own man-made traditions—things like ritual hand-washing—above the clear commands of God. “In vain do they worship me,” Jesus says, “teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” He’s not calling out people who study theology. He’s calling out people who replace God’s Word with their own ideas and label it holy.


You see this again in Colossians, when Paul critiques false teachers who added mystical practices and self-made rules to the gospel—things that looked spiritual, but couldn’t actually change the heart. Same in Titus, where Paul warns against Jewish myths and commands that turned people away from the truth.


What you don’t see in any of these passages is a rebuke for submitting to Scripture through the wisdom of godly teachers. In fact, the Bible celebrates that. Ephesians tells us that the Spirit Himself gave pastors, teachers, and elders to equip the saints and build up the church. The Holy Spirit doesn’t work against church history—He works through it. He doesn’t bypass the Body—He strengthens it.


So when someone says, “I don’t need theology books—I just need my Bible and the Spirit,” what they’re really saying is, “I don’t want to submit to anyone else’s understanding.” And listen, that might sound humble, but it’s not. It’s assuming that God has spent 2,000 years letting the church get it wrong until I came along and got it right.


The Spirit’s job is not to whisper brand new interpretations to each individual. His job is to shine a light on what’s already revealed—to help us rightly divide the Word of truth, in the context of community, with the help of godly men and women who came before us.


And while we’re here, we need to deal with this idea that personal experience can somehow outrank the Word of God. Now I believe testimonies matter. I believe God moves personally, powerfully, and sometimes unpredictably. But your experience is not infallible. The Word is.


If your testimony contradicts what Scripture clearly teaches, you don’t rewrite the Word—you reinterpret your experience in light of it. That’s not disrespecting your story. That’s submitting it to the only authority that never lies. The heart is deceitful. Emotions can be manipulated. But the Word of God stands forever.


Let me say it another way. Scripture is not here to validate what we already feel—it’s here to correct what we feel when we’re wrong. That’s what it means to let Scripture interpret experience, not the other way around.


That’s why exegesis—real study, real context—isn’t just academic. It’s worship. It’s a way of saying, “God, I don’t want to hear my own voice in this text. I want to hear Yours.” That’s what the Reformers fought for. Not dry doctrine, but living clarity. Rightly dividing the Word of truth, not just quoting it out of context to make a point.


Now, I’ve sat with folks who really love the Lord, who really want to follow Jesus, but who also insist that the way they feel saved must define the truth of salvation. And I’ve had to say—with love—that if the Jesus you met doesn’t line up with the Jesus of Scripture, it wasn’t Jesus you met. It might’ve been something emotional. It might’ve been sincere. But it wasn’t the gospel.


If we lose the ability to submit our stories to God’s story, we lose the ability to be discipled. If every believer becomes their own final authority, we don’t have unity. We don’t even have accountability. We just have personal popes cloaked in spiritual language.


Most of the time, pushback on sound doctrine isn’t really about theology—it’s about how the truth makes someone feel. “That doesn’t sound fair.” “That’s not how I grew up.” “That’s not how I got saved.” And I get that. I really do. But Scripture doesn’t ask us to feel comfortable. It asks us to bow. And when we do, we find freedom—not bondage.


So if you’ve been accused of teaching the “doctrines of men” just because you’re quoting John 6 or Romans 9 or Ephesians 1, take heart. You’re in good company. The apostles were accused of the same. Jesus too. You’re not being too theological. You’re being faithful. Stay kind. Stay clear. And stay submitted to the Word.


And if you’ve used that phrase—“doctrines of men”—as a way to push back on someone challenging your beliefs, can I ask you to reconsider? Don’t dismiss what might actually be the Spirit speaking through someone who loves you enough to tell you the truth. Not everyone quoting a theologian is abandoning the Word. Sometimes, they’re just echoing it more clearly than we were ready to hear.


At the end of the day, this comes down to a simple question:

Did God really say it? And if He did… will I submit to it?


If this helped you—maybe clarified some things or gave you a little courage in your conversations—would you take a second to like and share it? You never know who’s on the edge of this very struggle, and maybe this is the thing God uses to open their heart just a little more.


On behalf of Brushwood Press. Thanks for walking with us.





 
 
 

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